2 sessions; 40 minutes per session

1. The students will understand the history of Veterans Day.
2. The students will view and discuss an installation artwork featuring a sea of poppies at the Tower of London.
3. The students will discuss how exhibitions can influence the viewer’s ideas and beliefs.
4. The students will discuss how context of an artwork can influence the viewer’s ideas and emotions.
5. The students will create mixed media poppies with the intent of presenting them to veterans as a thank you.

1. Matboard for base
2. Colored pencils
3. Red tissue paper
4. Glue sticks
5. Black, navy, or dark brown buttons
6. Hot glue gun and sticks

Need these materials? Visit Blick!

1.Ask students what they know about Veterans Day to gauge prior knowledge.
-Play video of Leonard Cohen reading In Flanders Fields.
-Show video about poppy installation at the Tower of London.
-Discuss: How could this installation influence viewers’ ideas and beliefs?
How does the location of the installation affect its impact?
2.Explain that we will be creating mixed media poppies with the goal of presenting them to a veteran as a thank you.
-Observe images of poppies
-Choose a piece of matboard
-Draw a stem and leaves with colored pencil
-Tear red tissue paper into rounded shapes
-Arrange and glue to matboard using a gluestick, sculpting the petals
-Select a button and glue in the center
Optional: add other details
3.As students are working show video on the history of Veterans Day (can do this day 2 or day 1)
-Ask students if they know any veterans and who they would like to give their artwork to. -Offer to help find a veteran if they don’t know one.

1.In Flanders Fields https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKoJvHcMLfc
2.British Poppies Display at Tower of London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lZCzM9OjyI
3.History of Veterans Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymCa1eB_qLA
Emporia, KS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu_AEUic50Q
4.Slides presentation with embedded video demo https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LrIvlmpr38ty74y0_UrC1OuogwZWukbVAPadJtqAn1Q/edit?usp=sharing

My students mostly finished on day 1 so on day 2 they watched more history videos and made a graphic With a Veterans Day fact. This could take one or two class periods.

[5-8] Students use subjects, themes, and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values, and aesthetics that communicate intended meaning in artworks

[5-8] Students analyze, describe, and demonstrate how factors of time and place (such as climate, resources, ideas, and technology) influence visual characteristics that give meaning and value to a work of art

Form, Texture

Mixed Media

History/Social Studies