We sing the National Anthem every time we have assembly. We mostly know the words but sometimes it can be hard to work out what they mean. The Australian National Anthem was written a long time ago (by Peter Dodds McCormack in 1878) and the words are a bit old-fashioned. So we sat down together and talked about what the words actually mean. Then we put our heads together and rewrote our own version of the words.
Lauren printed out the old national anthem and what we had written and cut it all up into different lines. We played a game of match up (we had to find the person who had the words that matched ours). Then we sat down in pairs and illustrated each line to make the two versions of the anthem into a beautiful book!
We only sing the first verse of the anthem at assembly but this week we read the second verse as well (there are four all together!). We didn’t rewrite the words but we did talk about it. Some of us are going to try to learn it. Here it is in case you want to learn it too.
Beneath our radiant southern Cross,
We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who’ve come across the seas,
We’ve boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing
“Advance Australia fair!”
We’ll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who’ve come across the seas,
We’ve boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing
“Advance Australia fair!”
