With my grandad, dad and husband all serving in the armed forces Remembrance has always been an important time for me, and something that I want to pass forward to Little K. Her due date was also 11th November so very apt!
On her due date I attended the ceremony at the Cenotaph in London to watch my husband in the parade there. She attended her first cenotaph parade at 11 months old, and we have always attended a ceremony of some variation since.
While still very young, she is not truly aware of the reasons for the parades, and this year again we will be attending a ceremony where her Daddy will be on parade, and I will talk to her about it in a little more detail than last year.
One way I found best to get her involved was to create an activity based on Remembrance of her level and talk to her around this. Last year, we created some poppy based crafts, which she really enjoyed, and actually I was really pleased with the outcomes.
I pulled together all red, black and green craft supplies and we set to work. We made poppies with pipe cleaners and lollipop sticks, cupcake cases and buttons and sticking and pasting other items. All really simple, but Little K really enjoyed it, and I was really pleased with the results. The cupcake poppies have been on my kitchen windowsill ever since! See below for crafting ideas and instructions.
Cupcake Case Poppy
Required supplies:
- Cupcake cases (2-3 per poppy)
- Red paint
- Black buttons
- Green pipe cleaners
- Flatten out the cupcake cases. These do not need to be perfectly flat.
- Use the red paint to cover the cupcake cases.
- Wait for these to fully dry.
- Once paint has dried, place three cases on top of each other (paint side up) and add a black button to the centre of the top case.
- Pierce a small hole using a pin (or the end of the pipecleaner) and thread a green pipecleaner through from the back through on of the button holes.
- Thread the pipe cleaner back through another button hole, and through the cases.
- Twist the pipe cleaner ends together to create the ‘stem’
- Finally, scrunch the cases slightly creating the poppy shape on the petals.
Paper craft poppies
Required supplies:
- Red card
- Red craft supplies
- PVA glue
- Black pom poms
- Black felt tip pen
A really simple one!
- Cut petal shapes out of the red card (if your child is old enough, they can do this)
- Draw a Poppy shape on another piece of card (colour of your choice)
- Cover the shape in PVA glue
- Add varying red craft supplies (petal card, pom poms, glitter, cut up pipe cleaner, stickers… whatever you can find!) until the poppy is full
Pipe cleaner Poppy
Required supplies:
- Red pipe cleaners
- Black button or pom pom
- Lollipop stick
- PVA glue
- Green paint
- Paint the lollipop stick with the green paint
- Twist the pipe cleaners into a figure of eight shape (You may need to use two to get the desired size)
- Glue a black button/pompom into the centre
- Glue lollipop stick to the back of the poppy (you will probably have to hold his for a while, or place under a heavy book until dry).
Do you have any other Remembrance Day themed crafts? Let me know your ideas to try this year!
