Poppy Mural

Intro

What’s more beautiful and cheerful than a poppy? A sea of them! This activity, which can be spread out over a few weeks, guides you how to paint a field of poppies. You can even swap paints for tissue paper and create a collage instead.

Since the poppy symbolises remembrance for those who died fighting in World War 1 – and hope for a positive future and peaceful world – this is a good activity for VE Day or Remembrance Sunday.

What you need

Extra-large white thick card
Paint – sky blue, white, 2 or 3 shades of greens, red and black
Mix of textured paintbrushes (sponge, thick bristled etc)
A picture of a simple poppy scene - download resource

The Activity

First session

Gather the group around a table
Show everyone the poppy picture and discuss how you’ll recreate a similar scene over a number of sessions
Set your white card to landscape and paint ¾ of it sky blue with the textured paint brushes
Paint some white patches of cloud here and there to create clouds
Let the paint dry

Second session

Use a light and mid green to paint blades of grass at the bottom of the picture. Simply paint lots of upwards strokes randomly, leaning them left and right, so they look like they’re blowing in the breeze
Let the paint dry

Third session

Lightly draw pencil outlines of the poppies randomly along the landscape at different heights, making the stem thick
Paint the stems first, using the darkest green
Next paint the poppies a lovely rich shade of red
Leave the paint to dry

Fourth and final session