Remembrance Day Project – The Simple Poppy

The poppy is one of my favourite flowers. I grow them in my garden and the represent bravery and courage as we enter November. As a principal, I always tried to make Remembrance Day meaningful for my students by including an Honour Roll of family members who had served. Students would write out the stories, bring in pictures and memorabilia and we would surround the gym with their stories on chart paper and read the children would read the stories of their relatives. I always spoke to the children about being “ordinary heroes” – it doesn’t matter who or where you are, you can be a hero. You can do the right thing, even when no one is watching and you can choose honesty and integrity, even when it is difficult. Courage is always the most difficult but, most rewarding way to live your life.
I would often invite a veteran to come and speak to the children about their experiences and this allowed children to listen, understand and learn and hopefully apply the principles of kindness, bravery and always doing your best.

With everything happening in the world today, it is SO important to have age-appropriate conversations with our children about peacefully solving problems, about honouring those who serve our country and those who have lost their lives striving for peace. The poppy is a great starting point –

The poppy is the enduring symbol of remembrance of the First World War. It is strongly linked with Armistice Day (11 November), but the poppy’s origin as a popular symbol of remembrance lies in the landscapes of the First World War.

Poppies were a common sight, especially on the Western Front. They flourished in the soil churned up by the fighting and shelling. The flower provided Canadian doctor John McCrae with inspiration for his poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, which he wrote whilst serving in Ypres in 1915. It was first published in Punch, having been rejected by The Spectator. In 1918, in response to McCrae’s poem, American humanitarian Moina Michael wrote ‘And now the Torch and Poppy Red, we wear in honor of our dead…’. She campaigned to make the poppy a symbol of remembrance of those who had died in the war.

Artificial poppies were first sold in Britain in 1921 to raise money for the Earl Haig Fund in support of ex-servicemen and the families of those who had died in the conflict. They were supplied by Anna Guérin, who had been manufacturing the flowers in France to raise money for war orphans. Selling poppies proved so popular that in 1922 the British Legion founded a factory – staffed by disabled ex-servicemen – to produce its own. It continues to do so today.

Other charities sell poppies in different colours, each with their own meaning but all to commemorate the losses of war. White poppies, for example, symbolise peace without violence and purple poppies are worn to honour animals killed in conflict.

The poppy continues to be sold worldwide to raise money and to remember those who lost their lives in the First World War and in subsequent conflicts.

So, here is the simple poppy – the represents SO much and you can crochet them….
Chain 3
Rnd 1: 4 SC in the third chain from the hook.
Rnd 2: Chain 3, Sl st in the next stitch (4 times) SL stitch into the first chain 3 space.
Rnd 3: * Chain 3. 6 DC in the same chain sp, chain 3, sl stitch in the same chain 3 space, sl stitch in the
next chain 3 space, repeat from *all the way around (4 petals) , sl stitch in the first ch 3 space
Fasten off, weave in all the ends.
Use a black button and black embroidery thread and a small safety pin, sew the button into the center of the poppy and sew it around the bottom of the pin (leave the part the opens up) until the button and pin are firmly attached.

Written by Pam

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