Honoring Remembrance Day is important to my family and an easy way to involve the kids and facilitate conversations about the meaning behind Remembrance Day (or Veteran’s Day) is to engage them in a craft while talking about it. This Tissue Paper Poppy Wreath is our latest poppy craft for kids.

Tissue Paper Poppy Craft for Kids

I’ve made tissue paper poppies with my daycare kids almost every year now. It’s a simple and straightforward craft that even the youngest of them can make, and the finished poppies can be used in so many different ways. We’ve also painted coffee filters to use for this craft when I’ve been out of tissue paper and it works great.

We can turn them into badges (safer than pins), poppy magnets, arrange a vase with some, add them to a picture frame, or – as my daughter shows – tuck them in our hair.

This year, Ella and I thought we’d turn her tissue paper poppies into a Remembrance Day Wreath. It is a simple craft that even toddlers could help make and it would be a thoughtful gift for a veteran or just looks lovely decorating your door. (Ella suggested bringing it to my Papa’s plot because his is indoors, but that wouldn’t work for most outdoor graves.)

We stuck with the traditional red poppy, but poppies do come in a wide variety of colors so you could also mix it up with pink, purple, white, yellow and orange (there are no blue or green poppies in nature, apparently). The white poppy was traditionally the poppy worn during war time, and some pacifists prefer the white poppy to honor the fallen but also make a statement about war, but if you use white poppies you should know that some people have made it a contentious issue in recent years (so you may get some nasty comments). As a veteran’s daughter, I’d love to see those people spend their time advocating for veteran’s rights and benefits during the rest of the year rather than picking fights over Christmas displays and white poppies… but I digress.

This simple poppy craft takes less than 10 minutes to make, from cutting out the circles to attaching the finished poppies to your wreath. We chose not to attach the poppies with glue and just to wind the pipe cleaners around the wreath to hold them in place, because I’m not sure how the tissue paper poppies are going to hold up to a year in storage, but you could definitely use glue to attach them if you are concerned they will shift or fall off.

These books about the significance of poppies would be great to pair with the craft:

The Poppy Lady by Barbara Walsh
Ava’s Poppy by Marcus Pfister
In Flanders Field (this book contains both the famous poem and the background behind the poem)

Tissue Paper Poppy Wreath Materials

Tissue Paper
Scissors <– these are the ones we have and they have lasted for years in our daycare
Pipe cleaners (black or green)
Wreath <– these are a great deal if you need to make more than one wreath
Hole puncher, optional

Tip: have glue on hand in case you have issues with your poppies shifting or falling off.

How to Make a Tissue Paper Poppy Wreath

First, assemble your materials and cut your tissue paper circles. We did large red circles for the poppies and smaller black circles for the interior (carpel) area of the poppy. Older kids can do this independently, younger kids will need help.

Using the pipe cleaner or your hole punch, poke a hole through the center of several layers of the poppy circles. We found 4-5 layers gave the poppies a nice, full look. Repeat with 2 small black circles.

Poke the pipe cleaner through the poppy layers and then bend it down to secure in place. You may want to add a dab of glue at this point.

Scrunch up the poppies to give them a bit more dimension.

Wind the pipe cleaner into the wreath to secure it.

Repeat with remaining poppies until you have filled your poppy wreath to your preference.

Pin this Tissue Paper Poppy Wreath craft for kids:

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Yield: 1

Tissue Paper Poppy Wreath

A simple DIY tissue paper poppy wreath for learning about Remembrance Day or Veteran's Day.

Prep Time 2 minutes

Active Time 10 minutes

Total Time 12 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost $3

Materials

Tissue Paper
Pipe cleaners (black or green)
Wreath

Tools

Scissors
Hole puncher, optional

Instructions

First, assemble your materials and cut your tissue paper circles. We did large red circles for the poppies and smaller black circles for the interior (carpel) area of the poppy. Older kids can do this independently, younger kids will need help.
Using the pipe cleaner or your hole punch, poke a hole through the center of several layers of the poppy circles. We found 4-5 layers gave the poppies a nice, full look. Repeat with 2 small black circles.
Poke the pipe cleaner through the poppy layers and then bend it down to secure in place. You may want to add a dab of glue at this point.
Scrunch up the poppies to give them a bit more dimension.
Wind the pipe cleaner into the wreath to secure it.
Repeat with remaining poppies until you have filled your poppy wreath to your preference.