Activities

Discuss/Write

• Discuss as a class or in small groups: the irony in the title, the dream-like quality of the animation and its progression from excitement and glory to compassion and grief.



• Write a personal poem based on the Christmas Truce soccer game.



• Imagine being the first soldier to cross No Man's Land in a show of goodwill that Christmas morning. Record your thoughts and feelings either as a personal diary entry or as a letter home to your family.



• What if…? Discuss or write about what you imagine might have happened had the Christmas soccer soldiers played mixed sides, or if there had been a Boxing Day rematch.



• TV and newspaper stories regularly tell us how weak and mean people are. How far do you believe that the Christmas Truce story shows this world really could be different?



• Discuss/debate issues of children going to war, friendship – how and why it develops – how one person can make a difference, civil disobedience, pacifism and lessons learned from war.



• Considering their respective features, how might the impact of the Christmas Truce story differ when presented as an illustrated book, a drama, a television documentary, an animation or cartoon?



• Consider how a variety of metaphors and symbols are used during the animation of War Game to create appropriate mood and atmosphere.


Debate one or more of the motions:

• People always have much more in common with each other than the differences that divide them.


• Love is more powerful than hatred.


• If the governments had supplied 10,000 footballs at the time, that would have solved the war without bloodshed!