Riverside Public School making biodegradable poppies for Remembrance Day
A London, Ont. elementary school is trying to make Remembrance Day ceremonies more sustainable, swapping out traditional plastic poppies for homemade biodegradable ones.
Every student at Riverside Public School is making one as part of a Fanshawe College Initiative.
The college provides the school with construction paper, which is blended with hot water and psyllium powder to help the eventual pulp congeal.
Finally, before molding it into a poppy shape, actual poppy seeds are added.
"Sustainability and environmental projects are really near and dear to my heart," says Amy McCallum-Harris, a teacher and librarian at Riverside.
"It's a great opportunity to talk to kids about the poppy and why we wear them, but also talk about wasting plastic every year,” she says.A Riverside Public School student works on making their own biodegradable poppy on Nov. 1, 2022. (Carlyle Fiset/CTV News London)
The homemade poppies are meant to decompose, spreading their seeds. After Riverside's Remembrance Day ceremony, all of the students will bring their poppies to a nearby garden and plant them, hoping for a big poppy bloom next spring.
"It's really neat," says grade seven student, Lila Thompson. "It's like a double use. You can wear it for Remembrance Day, and then once you're done with them you've got beautiful poppies."
*The Poppy Design is a registered trademark of The Royal Canadian Legion, Dominion Command and is used under license
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.