Students at St. Anne school in Kanata create sustainable poppies

On the eve of Remembrance Day, there's an effort by students at St. Anne School in Kanata to repurpose poppies we wear in honour of those who have served.

It’s called the Poppy Project, and its aims to replace plastic poppies with biodegradable ones.

“They are made out of paper, water, psyllium powder and poppy seeds,” says Nasim Askarinasab, St. Anne early childhood educator. “It's a great initiative for students to realize that instead of wearing the plastic one, we can make the paper one and hopefully we will replace them.”

In the St. Anne kindergarten class, Grade 6 students joined to give a helping hand.

“We were just helping the kinders set it up,” says Grade 6 student William Leclair. “Helping them do all of the steps.”

The kids spent the morning turning red construction paper into biodegradable poppies.

“We ripped it into little pieces. We put it in a bowl of water. We put it in a blender. Then we strained the water out,” said Grade 6 student Olivia Lanthier.

The mash is then moulded into little red flowers, which the students will wear on Nov. 11.

“We will add the pin in the middle and then we will cover it with another construction paper," says Askarinasab.

Those paper poppies will then be repurposed after Remembrance Day. Filled with poppy seeds, they’ll be planted in the schools garden next week.

“We're going to plant them and then hopefully in the spring, you know it'll grow in poppies," says Grade 6 student Owen McCord.

“It’s going to be very interesting for students as well, to see that what they planted now and worked on to make it,” says Askarinasab. “They are going to have a result in the spring.”