Poppy Wreath For Remembrance Day

As a newcomer to Canada, I see Remembrance Day having a very special place among all the other holidays.

It has a solemn dignity, and while it hardly provides an opportunity for a boisterous celebration, it gives a chance to discuss important questions with children.

In a few years, I foresee reading historical stories with my son, talking about the tragedy of wars and looking over old photographs of his great grandfather, who was a pilot during the World War II.

He's still young though, so this year we participated in a different way: we paid tribute with a beautiful symbol of this day—a poppy. We made a poppy wreath to hang on our door.

You Will Need:

• coffee filters
• cupcake liners (any colour) or cupcake tin
• watercolours (liquid or pan)
• black felt (or black card stock)
• yellow buttons
• wreath base (ours was a straw wreath, but you can use a foam one or even a cardboard ring)
• green ribbon
• hot glue gun and glue

Instructions:

1. If you have liquid watercolours, you can pour them straight into a palette section. We tried adding other colours and shades of red, but in the end we used the undiluted red colour 95% of the time. Poppies are such a vibrant colour!

If you have pan watercolours, you use them straight from the box or mix them with water (a teaspoon of water and lots of pigment!) for kids' convenience.

2. Paint the coffee filters red.

Now, while we used brushes most of the time, dipping the coffee filters in the pan was also fun! If you have an eye dropper, kids could practice using it as well. Put a drop of colour onto the filter and see it spread, leaving imaginative splashes with rough edges.

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3. We had planned to dry the coffee filters flat on a cookie sheet in the oven at the lowest temperature, but I had a last-minute flash of brilliance—my idea was to stick them into cupcake liners and shape them, before drying. Strangely enough, that was my son's favourite part: to make “flower cupcakes”, as he called them!

It was a success: fifteen minutes in the oven at the lowest setting and the coffee filters dried, retaining their cupped shape (they're still holding their shape after hanging on our front door for a few days).

4. To assemble the poppies, we nested one coffee filter into another, then added a circle of black felt in the centre and completed the construction with a little wooden button. You can either sew or glue the finished flowers together.

5. To represent the leaves and stems of poppies, we wrapped a green ribbon around the wreath.

6. We attached the flowers with a hot glue gun and in a few minutes the wreath was on our door!

Now that we have the wreath on our door, we have a constant reminder—when coming and going—of the sacrifices made in the name of freedom. We still benefit from those brave actions, and so do our children, and this craft is one small way to make sure we don't forget.