Remembrance Day, also known as Armistice Day, offers a meaningful opportunity for pupils to engage with the themes of peace, remembrance, and hope. Through art, children can explore these powerful ideas while developing their creativity. Here are some engaging art activities for primary schools that commemorate Remembrance Day, each inspired by renowned artists or historical symbols of peace.

Remembrance Poppy Wreath

Age group: EYFS, KS1 or KS2

Linked artist: Georgia O’Keeffe – Poppies

Artist background: Georgia O’Keeffe is famous for her large, detailed paintings of flowers, including poppies, which can symbolise remembrance.

Learning objective: To use scale and detail in creating a wreath of poppies inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower paintings.

Activity:

• Explore Georgia O’Keeffe’s detailed and enlarged poppies and discuss how her work highlights the beauty and significance of natural forms.  
• Each child creates a large tissue paper or felt poppy, focusing on scale and detail, inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s work. 
• Assemble the poppies as a class wreath to commemorate Remembrance Day, symbolising remembrance of those who fought in wars.

Memory Stones

Age group: EYFS, KS1 or KS2

Linked artist: Andy Goldsworthy – Environmental sculpture 

Artist background: The British artist Andy Goldsworthy is known for using natural materials to create temporary art installations, often symbolising the passage of time and memory.

Learning objective: To use natural materials and create a shared installation that reflects memory and remembrance, inspired by Andy Goldsworthy.

Activity:

• Introduce Andy Goldsworthy’s work with natural materials. Discuss how his outdoor installations reflect themes of nature, time, and memory.  
• Each child decorates a smooth stone with symbols or words related to peace and remembrance. Use paint or markers to create individual ‘memory stones’.  
• The stones can be gathered to form a ‘Memory Stone Garden’, echoing Andy Goldsworthy’s emphasis on natural forms and the temporary nature of life and memory.

Memory Boxes

Age group: EYFS, KS1 or KS2

Linked artist: Joseph Cornell – Assemblage Art

Artist background: American artist Joseph Cornell was known for creating ‘memory boxes’ or assemblages using found objects, often representing moments in time, memory, and personal history.

Learning objective: To create a memory box inspired by Joseph Cornell, reflecting on remembrance through objects and personal symbolism.

Activity:  

• Introduce Joseph Cornell’s shadow boxes, which contain personal and symbolic objects. Discuss how the objects in these boxes tell a story of memory and personal history.
• Children create their own small memory boxes (using shoeboxes or similar containers), filling them with items, images, or symbols that represent remembrance. These could be related to soldiers, poppies, or personal family stories.  
• Encourage children to think about objects that represent memory and loss and how to thoughtfully arrange them in their boxes. These could include small drawings, letters, or found materials.

This KS2 Art & Design sculpture lesson plan is inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell.

Peace Dove Paper Mosaics

Age group: KS1 or KS2

Linked artist: Pablo Picasso La Colombe (Dove) (1949)

Artist background: Picasso’s Dove of Peace became a universal symbol of hope and peace, particularly after World War II when it was featured on posters for the World Peace Congress in Paris.

Learning objective: To create a mosaic that represents peace, inspired by Picasso’s symbolic dove.

Activity: 

• Introduce Picasso’s Dove of Peace and discuss its importance as a peace symbol.
• Children create a collaborative mosaic dove inspired by Picasso’s iconic dove. 
• Each child contributes pieces to fill a pre-drawn dove outline with torn or cut coloured paper, using cool, peaceful colours (white, blue, silver). Discuss how the dove symbolises hope and unity in a post-war world.

Commemorative Stained-Glass Windows

Age group: KS1 or KS2

Linked craft: Islamic stained glass (from mosques and traditional design)

Craft background: Islamic architecture often features intricate stained-glass windows with geometric patterns. In many cultures, light shining through glass represents knowledge, reflection, and remembrance.

Learning objective: To design and create a stained-glass window that symbolises remembrance, inspired by the geometric patterns found in Islamic art.

Activity:

• Introduce Islamic stained-glass art, showing examples of intricate geometric designs used in mosques and other cultural buildings. Discuss the symbolism of light and how it can represent reflection and memory.  
• Children design their ‘stained-glass’ windows using coloured cellophane or tissue paper on black construction paper frames, a technique used in this Year 2 Art and design lesson where pupils create stained-glass art from map drawings. 
• They can use shapes and patterns inspired by Islamic art and incorporate symbols of remembrance, such as poppies, into their designs. 
• Once completed, these ‘stained-glass’ windows can be displayed in the classroom to represent the collective memory of those remembered on Remembrance Day.

Peace Banners

Age group: KS2

Linked artist: Faith Ringgold – (Story Quilts) or Harriet Powers

Artist background: Faith Ringgold is known for her story quilts that convey messages about peace, justice, and conflict.

Learning objective: To collaborate on a class banner, telling a collective story about peace, inspired by Faith Ringgold’s storytelling through art.

Activity: 

• Discuss Faith Ringgold’s work, especially how she used quilts to tell stories about civil rights, peace, and unity.  
• Children work in small groups to create sections of a peace banner using fabric or paper. Each section tells a story about peace, hope, or remembrance through symbols, images, and words. 
• Once completed, the sections are combined into a large class banner, mirroring Ringgold’s collaborative and narrative approach.

Flanders Fields Silhouette Art

Age group: KS2 (Years 5 & 6)

Linked artist: Paul Nash – The Menin Road (War Landscapes)  

Artist background: Paul Nash was a British war artist whose dramatic landscapes, such as ‘The Menin Road’, depict the destruction of war.

Learning objective: To create a silhouette artwork using contrast and symbolism inspired by Paul Nash’s war landscapes.

Activity:  

• Show Paul Nash’s war landscapes and discuss how he used stark, dark shapes to capture the devastation of war. 
• Children create silhouette art inspired by Paul Nash by cutting out black shapes of soldiers, crosses, and war scenes. 
• These can then be placed over different backgrounds, such as paintings or drawings of vibrant poppies or landscapes, painted or collaged with tissue paper, representing remembrance and hope. This highlights the contrast between the destruction of war and the beauty of nature, as seen in Flanders Fields. 
• You could use the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ as inspiration for beautiful backgrounds. 

Origami Peace Lanterns

Age group: KS2 (Years 5 & 6)

Linked artist: Sadako Sasaki and the 1,000 Cranes (Origami Art)

Artist background: 

Sadako Sasaki, a Hiroshima survivor, became a symbol of peace after folding 1,000 paper cranes while she was ill from radiation sickness. Now, the paper cranes represent peace, hope, and healing.

Learning objective: To use origami and lantern-making to create symbols of peace inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki and the 1,000 cranes.

Activity:

• Introduce the story of Sadako Sasaki and the significance of the origami crane as a symbol of remembrance and peace in Japanese culture. 
• Children can create simple paper lanterns that represent hope and healing. They can decorate them with pre-made pictures or drawings of origami cranes. 
• If time allows, children could fold their own origami cranes to attach to the lanterns. 
• You could light up the lanterns with LED candles, representing the children’s wish for peace and remembrance of those lost in conflict.

Remembrance Day Clay Sculptures

Age group: KS2 (Years 5 & 6)

Linked artist: Kimiyo Mishima 

Artist background:  

Kimiyo Mishima was a Japanese artist who created sculptural installations that transformed everyday objects into symbols of memory and loss, exploring how life is fleeting and how memories are powerful. 

Learning objective: To create a clay sculpture symbolising remembrance, inspired by Kimiyo Mishima’s exploration of memory through sculptural art.

Activity:

• Introduce Kimiyo Mishima’s sculptural work and discuss how she used everyday objects as symbols of memory, loss, and preservation. Explain how sculpture can be used to freeze a moment in time, creating something permanent from the ephemeral. 
• Children create small clay sculptures that symbolise remembrance. This could be a poppy, a small soldier figure, or an abstract object that represents memory. 
• Once fired or dried, the sculptures can be painted and displayed as a group installation to symbolise collective memory.  
• Discuss the permanence of the sculptures as a metaphor for remembrance and how memory can be preserved in art.

Remembrance Day is an important time for children to reflect on peace, memory, and the impact of conflict. These art activities provide a creative and thoughtful way for pupils to express these themes, helping them connect with the history of Remembrance Day while developing their artistic skills. Through these projects, children can honour the past while envisioning a peaceful future.