[aj906]

Worth reminding them that it was the second landing on mainland Europe by the Western Allies, following the landings in Italy in Sept 1943,

Ummmm...aren't you forgetting Dieppe and Op. Chariot to name two others? D-Day relied on a lot of intelligence gathered from the Dieppe landings, so without that fiasco, D-Day would have been going in a lot more "blind" than it already did.

D-Day was about the efforts to liberate Western Europe by the French, British, Canadians and the US.

...And Australians and New Zealanders who were used in the first waves at D-Day. Or how about the Allies of all nations who overflew the battlefield in the lead up to, during and after the landings. It was a joint effort by the Allies, not specific nations.

Back to the original question, as a teacher myself, get your hands on a copy of Antony Beevor's D-Day: http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Day-Battle-Nor...067088703X as there are some good sections you could use with the class.

Also, I took my class down the back oval near a hill. Stood 1/4 at the top of a hill with a load of squishy balls from the gym, and the other 3/4 had to run from a set distance to the top of the hill with school bags on and not get hit by the flying balls. Then rotated so everyone got a go. The further you got up the hill before 'dying' was rewarded with various things to give the kids an incentive not to 'get hit'. (Otherwise, "dying" means nothing to them.) Made the cncept of storming a defended position more real for them and gave them a kick out of "doing" history. Though, whether you can do that depends on the calibre of kid you have in the class and whether the school/parent body would be okay with something like that.