Remembrance Day: Beavers, Soldiers and a Poppy Craft

Tuesday nights my 6-year old son goes to Beavers. He loves it. He loves the uniform and hanging out with the boys. This week his troop focused on Remembrance Day. One of the parents brought in a soldier’s uniform from a family member, a uniform that actually was involved in the war. The owner has since died, not during the war, so he wasn’t able to present it but seeing the uniform itself was enough. When my son came home that was the first thing he told me about. He couldn’t believe he got to hold and smell (it smelt like mothballs) a uniform for the war, not a prop, not a costume, an actual real-life uniform.

The kids walked over to a local part to visit a cenotaph and talk about the meaning of Remembrance Day and the sacrifices that were made and being made still. The kids listened on, as best 6-year old boys can, to one of the leaders recited the poem Flanders Field.

Then it was back inside where they made a poppy craft. My son isn’t a big crafter but he was very proud at the poppy he made on this own; he wore his to school today.

My 3-year old daughter was inspired by her big brother’s poppy so today we decided to make our own.

This craft is quite simple for kids to do and is great for practicing folding and glueing and cutting skills. All you need is a square piece of red paper, a smaller black square (or circle) of paper, scissors and glue. My daughter glued the black poppy center on but you could just colour the center black with a crayon. My daughter wanted to use those fancy scrapbook scissors, the ones with the scallop edges. The treatment can look nice but they are difficult for little hands to manage.

The final result is something your child will be proud of. It can be used as a decoration or to replace those smaller stick pin poppies. Checkout the latest Everything Fabulous post on EverythingMom, Remembering Remembrance Day, for other great ideas to share with your kids.

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