Anzac Day poppy craft made from paper plates

Anzac Day, on the 25th April, is an important day of national remembrance and marks the anniversary of Australia and New Zealands involvement in their first military action during the First World War. It is this day that evokes a sense of patriotism and heroism, as well as providing us an opportunity to step back from daily life and take a moment to acknowledge the incredible sacrifice of all the men and women involved.

Anzac Day in Australia is celebrated and remembered in many different ways. A simply way to share and open a discussion about this day with children is to make simple red poppies, much like Kelly from ‘Be a Fun Mum’ has in this poppy craft post. Traditionally poppy flowers are shared during November’s Remembrance Day, however, they are increasingly becoming a welcomed sight over Anzac Day. For Possum (aged 2) I knew she would love to get elbow deep in red paint, so here is an Anzac Day poppy craft made from paper plates, which I’m sure even the little ones will enjoy making.

Recommended Age : 2 +

(Active supervision and common sense is always required for my activities)

 You will need –

• Paper plate(s)
• Red paint
• Paint brush
• black paper
• Pencil
• craft glue
• scissors

Use your pencil to roughly design the petals on your poppy and cut it out as shown above. Of course, if your child is capable of drawing and cutting with some accuracy then they could do this step themselves. I chose to prepare this step myself.

Setting up your painting station is easy. It’s a good idea to have everything you need before introducing it to your child, as it makes wondering hands easier to control and you can be ready to begin with some degree of organisation.

When we are painting, I always like to put Possum a quality apron. I recommend this early stART Art Smock from Micador.

 Let the painting begin!

This was such a fabulous activity because the instructions are so very simple – paint the flower red. She had a fabulous time experimenting with the brush and paint, moving it around in circles and making swirls, dots and dashes. As you can imagine, painting activities are fabulous for strengthening the wrist joint.

I absolutely adore toddler painting. I know you know what I mean – hahaha. I also like that we were only using one paint colour, which we can find ourselves rarely offering to our little ones. 

Once we had painted our poppies, we set them aside to dry. I then presented her with squares of black paper and asked her to tear them up, which is a great activity for fine motor development. Of course, you don’t have to use black paper if you don’t have them handy. You might simply ask your child to use a black marker and colour the middle of the poppy.

After an hour or two our poppies were dry and ready for the next step.
Possum helped me squeeze the craft glue into the poppy.

I liked that the craft glue gave a clear indication where the torn black paper was to be placed.

The torn paper pieces were obviously a variety of shapes and sizes.
I took the opportunity to discuss this with Possum.

This Anzac poppy craft turned out better than I could have imagined. What a beautiful decorative feature for our home. It was so lovely to engage Possum in an Anzac Day related activity and I look forward to her being old enough to gain greater appreciation for those who have fought in war and made incredible sacrifices.

How do you help your children to learn about important events?

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