13 Interesting Anzac Day Facts for Kids to Share in Your Primary Classroom

Are you looking for some interesting Anzac Day facts for kids to help your students students understand that this public holiday is about so much more than taking time away from school?  Connecting kids with the important meaning of Anzac Day can seem challenging at times, but there are ways to hook your students’ attention and help them understand to true meaning of this public holiday.

Whether you’re looking for some topics to start discussion during your classroom morning meeting or ways to explain Anzac Day with real-world examples that will make your lessons more appealing to your students, the teachers on the Teach Starter team have put together this list of facts that are kid-appropriate to get you started.

Read on for a look at some surprising stories about Anzac Day, including the origins of the commemoration, places where it is honoured around the world and facts about ceremonies that mark this day.

Teach Starter Teacher Tip: Click on the blue words to find activities and resources to go with the facts!

Anzac Day Facts for Kids

1. The letters in the acronym ANZAC refer to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
2. The first day to be called Anzac Day was 13 October 1915 and occurred in Adelaide. The Anzac Day we know and honour today didn’t occur until 25 April 1916.
3. Anzac Day is commemorated in Australia and New Zealand, but it’s also marked in France in two towns — Le Quesnoy and Longueval — as well as in one town in England. People in the village of Harefield in Middlesex just outside of London also honour Anzac Day.
4. Although we use poppies to honour the fallen on Anzac Day, the idea of using the flowers doesn’t come from Australia at all. It started thanks to a Canadian named John McCrae who wrote a WWI poem called In Flanders Fields. Poppies now serve as a reminder of the loss of all veterans in all wars here in Australia, in Canada, in the United States and in many countries around the world.

1. Anzac biscuits may get their name from the ANZACs, but the original biscuits were nothing like the delicious treats we know and love today. The original biscuits eaten by the soldiers were square-shaped and so hard that soldiers joked that men broke their teeth on them.
2. Anzac Day services are traditionally held at dawn because when the ANZAC soldiers are in battle, dawn is the best time to attack the enemy.
3. When we talk about the Battle of Gallipoli that the ANZACs fought in, we aren’t talking about a town. Gallipoli is an entire peninsula in Turkey.
4. The area of Turkey where the ANZACs landed is now known as Anzac Cove.
5. Despite the name, Anzac Day is now more than just remembering WW1. It’s a chance to recognise all Australian and New Zealand service men and women who have and who continue to serve, along with those who lost their lives.
6. The aromatic herb rosemary is an important symbol of remembrance for Anzac Day as it grows wild on the Gallipoli peninsula. Cuttings of plants from Gallipoli were even planted in nurseries throughout Australia in the 1980s.

1. We often use the phrase ‘Lest we forget‘ on Anzac Day, but it actually pre-dates the Battle of Gallipoli by 18 years. It comes from a line in an 1897 Rudyard Kipling poem called Recessional.
2. Although we play the Last Post on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day, it’s actually played daily at 8 p.m. every evening in the town of Ypres, Belgium, by the buglers of the local Last Post Association.
3. The Ode of Remembrance that is traditionally recited on Anzac Day is just part of the poem For the Fallen by the English poet and writer, Laurence Binyon. It is the fourth stanza of the much longer poem.