EL ALAMEIN REFLECTION
Day one: Arriving at school on time meant being principled at my house; it was a fiasco trying to get out the door making sure that I had everything with me; my packed lunch, a hat, a drink bottle and my suitcase.
A small group of seven children piling onto a small mini van without complaining that the air conditioner or the windows were not opening took being a thinker and also knowledge to know that it was rude and disrespectful to the driver and the teacher. Even though the bus was traveling at a very slow pace of 60km/h some of the time was annoying but we arrived at the hotel Ghazala Regency in a record time of 5hrs and 10mins.
When we got to our hotel rooms everyone was exhausted. We were all open-minded saying that we would let each other onto the beds before we chose our own, everyone wanted to sleep but we still had a whole afternoon to do orientation activities like swimming in the cave pool and mapping the ground floor of the hotel. We were communicators saying “does that go there?” and “does that go here?” Finally, we got to go back to our rooms, having only 30 minutes rest and then we got a phone call from Mr. Cavanagh saying that we had to meet in the meeting room on level 3 before we went to dinner.
We played a game to decide which group would go to dinner first. What you had to do is everyone closed their eyes and we had to count to ten one person at a time and no one could say the same number at the same time or everyone had to start again! It was very fun.
That night, we all went out onto the sand and played capture the flag. The girl’s team won because we found the boy’s flag underneath the soccer goal, surprise, surprise! The boy’s couldn’t find ours; we hid it in a broken lamp.
Day two: A 7am wake up call was not what we wanted! Everyone in my room was rushing around like chickens without a head trying to clean up for the room inspection and also trying to fit in showers.
We all piled into our buses after a big breakfast - it was a 40 minute drive to our first stop, The Commonwealth War Memorial. It was the biggest of all the memorials we went to. We had to do 2 grave rubbings and answer questions about the memorial. I found one of my ancestors; a corporal in the Australian Imperial Army! At this war memorial I learnt about how many people gave their lives in the conflict.
At the German memorial I learnt how much money the Germans (Hitler and the NAZIS) put into winning this war and how much more money they lost when they surrended to the Allies. I also learnt how sorry the Germans were for what they had done and also how kind people were because they forgave.
The Italian memorial was beautiful, the marble was so white and plain but it really did mean something. The Italians really wanted their soldiers to rest peacefully with what little money they had left.
When we got back to the hotel we all met in the meeting room to discuss what we had done that day. We then did a technology quiz with eggs, my group's egg burst so we could not compete =( . Then we played a game called blow the tank, it was very fun. Finally we got to go to dinner and then head off to bed, there were no complaints there!
Day three: After everyone was finished packing up suitcases and cleaning out rooms the teachers had one final check through each room and then let us go and put our luggage onto transport carts and hand in our towel cards to reception. We all headed up to the meeting room for the instructions on what we were doing and then we all trudged slowly down to the buses saying our goodbyes to all the rooms and the hotel (babyish I know). Once we got on our buses everyone was okay, we were happy to be going home to our families but we had to make a few toilet stops on the way home. However, we got back to school at 5:05pm to see forests of parents waving and waiting for us to get off the buses. I know that all of us were excited to see our parents but we couldn't wait to go on another school trip.
El Alamein Reflection
We went to El Alamien and stayed in a hotel called Ghazala Regency. It was very big; in our room we had three. We had evening games on the first day and we played capture the flag. On the second day, we had a competition of which egg will survive by getting dropped from three meters. Tuesday was the best day ever because we went to the Commonwealth Graves, the War Museum, German war memorial and the Italian war memorial.
At the Commonwealth Graves each person had his own grave and they were all from the Allied countries. It had more than 100 grave stones, I found one that said "Deep in our hearts a memory is kept of one we loved and shall never forget".
In the war museum, there were wax people and guns and weapons that were used during the war. It had all sorts of hall's. There was the Italian hall, the Egyptian, the British, and the German hall. On the outside of the museum there were Turrets, Tanks, a Spitfire and cars that were also used in WWII.
In the German memorial were all the people that died. They were buried all together which was hard to get over, they were the ones who lost so they didn't have their own grave. In the Italian memorial, the people had a space in the wall and some of the coffins said "IGNOTO" printed on them which means "Unknown."
I was Knowledgeable, Caring, a Communicator, Open-Minded and Reflective during this trip. I enjoyed the trip, it was my best school trip ever.
El Alamein Reflection
During the trip to El Alamein I learned alot of things. When we went to the museum, I discovered that lots more people died than I thought and it made me feel sad because they risked their lives for the safety of our future. Seeing all the graves in the memorials made me think about how hard it must have been to go through WW2. I also learned what "IGNOTO" means, it means "unknown" and was used in the Italian memorial. There was alot of Ignoto's!
Back at the hotel, we learned a game called "Capture the Flag." It was really fun since the girls won because "R" was being a thinker and an inquirer as she found the flag and she thought about where it could be, and if she should risk being caught since she only had a "2" card.
During dinner, many of us weren't being very balanced because we ate too much ice cream and not enough proper food! I think we should have eaten more healthy food first, before we moved on to dessert.
In the meeting room, we had to wrap an egg so when the teachers droppped it, it wouldn't break. My group should have been more careful and principled because we cracked our egg when we were wrapping it. M's group was open-minded because their's didn't break because they thought about how to wrap it up carefully.
Another game we played was "mine field" and my team won! I think we were caring and we were communicators because we encouraged each other and discussed where to step and if there was a mine or not.
At the Commonwealth memorial N and A were being caring because they helped everyone with the questions in our books and told us where we could find the answer.
On the way to El Alamein, my bus group and I were being communicators because we brainstormed together answers for the quiz.
Overall, I achieved my learner profile characteristic goal which was to be a risk taker and I demonstrated that by doing different things than others.
El Alemain reflection
When we arrived at the hotel Mr.C showed us the meeting room. While we were at the meeting room Mr.C was calling out our names and giving us towel cards with our room keys.
I thought we were principled while doing our orientation. We were principled during our orientation because we came back on time and there were no teachers with us.Then we played a game called "mine fields." After that we went to the pool. Some people were being risk - takers by going into the freezing pool and back in the warm pool.
When we finished we were all sent to our rooms. When we finished dinner we played a game called "capture the flag" where I thought we were communicators. I thought this because everyone kept saying you do this and I'll do that. We were reflective when we were doing our journal writing because we were thinking of the past and what we had learned.
I also thought we were knowledgeable and inquirers while visiting three memorials and one musuem . We were knowledgeable and inquirers because we all listened to our teachers, and stayed with our group.The questions made us thinkers and reflective because we had to think of the past and ask lots of different questions.
After a while we had a quiz which I found fun.We were also communicators because we kept saying you write this and I'll write that. Then we had to built a contraption with an egg without it cracking. Some groups weren't very principled because while they were building there contraption , the egg cracked! The teachers were very caring because they let us have fun and learn at the same time .
The goals I achieved were listening carefully and being knowledgeable. I was listening to my teacher and I got alot of information.
El Alamein Reflection
On the bus Journey to El Alamein our group was knowledgeable because the first thing we did was the quiz and we did not leave it to the last minuet. When we got there, the first place we went to was the meeting room and the teachers told us to go to our room when we got our keys. After we had been in our rooms we went to the pool and I played water polo.
The first activity we did in our camp book at the hotel was to draw the hotel. I think that I was a thinker because I went out to the balcony, so I could see the whole hotel. That night, I learned how to play capture the flag with cards on the beach.
The next morning we went to the Commonwealth Cemetery. When I was there I learned about how people are buried close together if they die in the same place and time. Next we went to the museum. At the museum we saw lots of tanks and a plane.
After that we went to the German memorial and I was an inquirer because I asked lots of questions about the slabs of rock underneath the burial. Finally we went to the Italian memorial where I learned that lots of people where buried with the words Ignoto on them (meaning unknown). The next morning we did lots of activities like building sand castles, going on walks and playing beach football.
El Alamein Reflection
Year 6 and Group 7 went on a fantastic trip which was to El Alamein. When we went to the Common Wealth Memorial I learnt that different people with different ages were in war and they had died for their country! J.Davids was the youngest I saw and he was 17 years old. The oldest one I saw was aged 42 and his name was C.Gunn. I think we were all caring because we were behaving sensibly in the Memorials and we all did what we were supposed to do. This was my first time in my life to do a rubbing and I was really good at it. There were some graves stuck together and that was because those people died at the same time, same place and for the same reason.
When we went to the museum we had to listen to a recording and it helped us with the questions in our camp book. This recording had a lot of information and it was useful.
In the Italian Memorial it said "Ignoto" and in Italian it means "unknown" they also had "sold." for "soldier." The different nationalities were New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Poland, Scotland and England. Here are the countries and the people from there:
New Zealand: M.W Mipgley
Scotland: E. Jordan
South Africa: JPP Palfinson
England: J.N Robinson
Some people were not buried in those memorials because they were buried in the place where their family can go and visit them. Britain was stopping the Axix from taking over North Africa. Britain also had more troops and that's why they thought it was easy to defeat the Italians.
El Alamian Reflection
When we went to the Commonwealth war graves I felt sad because I never knew many of the soldiers were not found and some of the ones they found, they didn't know who they were. There were hundreds of dead soldiers in the ground there.
In the Italian memorial, they were buried in the wall, and had marble tiles on the space were the bodies are. Their names and ranks were written on the tile in front of them. There was a room though that was full of tiles saying IGNOTO on them. This means unknown. Like the Commonwealth war graves, there are a lot of people that we have no idea who they are except that they were Italian.
At the war museum we learnt about the battle of El Alamian. The Axis forces had more troops and were led by Erwin Rommel, also known as the Desert Fox. The Allied forces were led by Montgomery and had fewer troops at first. At the museum, there were huge old army tanks and guns. I would be pretty scared if one of those tanks came rolling towards me. I think Rommel was a thinker because he wore goggles over his eyes to protect himself from the sand and dust that explosions would spread everywhere.
At the German Memorial there was a cube in the middle that had eagles on all of the corners and a obelisk was on top of it with German massages on all of the sides. I think that my friends and I were thinkers because we untangled ourselves in an activity were you hold the hands of two people in front of you in a circle.
El Alamein Reflection
Our bus ride to El Alamein was about four and a half hours when we where going and about 5 hours when we were coming back, so that made the bus ride very long and boring. As soon as we arrived we all went up to our rooms and unpacked our bags. After we finished we all met in the meeting room and had a small discussion about what we were going to do.
When Mr.C was done with his talking we all went to the restaurant and had a small snack until lunch was ready. When we finished lunch we were put into groups. There was group A and group B, group A started in the pool and group B started by doing outdoor activities. That night at 9:30 we went outside after taking a shower and played a game in the sand which included our torches. The game was called capture the flag, which was very fun. We finished our game at about 10:15, and without a sound we all went up to our rooms quietly because all the guests were asleep.
The next day, we went to see all the museums in El Alamein. The thing I enjoyed the most that day was when we went to the Commonwealth cemetery because I saw all the different nationalities that were there and their different ages. The oldest man I found there was 46 years old and he was from England and the youngest man there was 17 years old and he was born in Fiji. I didn’t really like the German memorial because it was small and it only had about 10 coffins. The Italian memorial was really good because all the dead men were buried on shelves on the wall. When we went to the memorials we had to be very quiet and respectful because it was like going to a church or a mosque.
In the trip I think I was a communicator because I communicated with my teammates during the egg contest and also while playing football.
El Alamien Reflection
I learned how to depend on myself. I was responsible because I learned how to pack my cloths and get dressed on time. I respected my roommates and we didn’t fight. I was a risk taker because I was brave to try things I never tried before like the walk with Mrs. Wolbers and Mr. Jo and some of my teammates.
When we went to the Commonwealth memorial there were people from different countries and different cities. I have learned that most of the soldiers who are buried there were from different ages for example; the oldest one i found was 46 years old and the youngest was about 16 or 17 years old.
I learned how to do a rubbing when we went to the German memorial, Italian memorial and in the Commonwealth as well. After we arrived at the hotel we played a game called water polo; it’s like volleyball but in the pool! At night we played a game called "Capture the Flag." We learned teamwork from that game which means how to follow the right behavior while working within a team.
Before leaving the hotel we played some games like beach football and we played with the sand and we had a contest to see which sand castle was the best. The winner got a prize. On our way back from El Alamien, I didn’t enjoy my time because it was too long. I only started to enjoy when we arrived to the school as we kept singing and talking about what we enjoyed during the whole trip.
We hope you have enjoyed the reflections about our trip. Please scroll down to see our Virtual Tour of the Commonwealth War Memorial.
