The Story of

In Flanders Fields
and the Poppy

A Short Remembrance Day Skit

By Lorraine Lew

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 The Story of In Flanders Fields and the Poppy
A Short Remembrance Day Skit
By Lorraine Lew

Characters Needed: approx. 10 students plus others on the risers with no

acting parts.
One Narrator – teacher or strong student
One person to play John McCrae who wrote the poem In Flanders Fields-dressed in
doctor attire
Several students to play soldiers who are fighting. They could be dressed in plain
black or camouflage attire, have toy/cardboard guns, helmets, etc.
Mailman soldier
Moina Michael – dressed in a plain blouse and skirt to look from early 1900s
Two or three conference delegates – dressed in attire to look from early 1900s
Madame Guérin – dressed in attire to look like early 1900s – white blouse, plain
skirt
Students seated on risers at the back of the stage. They are dressed in black shirts
and black or dark pants. They have poppies on. Every other student is holding a
large poppy flower. Every other student is holding a white cross made from balsa
wood.

Props:
A torch made from papier mache with flames made from red/orange tissue paper.
Large poppies made by students or bought at a dollar store/craft store
Large white crosses made from balsa wood, painted white
Toy doctor kit/stethoscope
Cardboard/toy guns
Mail envelopes
Adhesive backed Velcro and red paper poppies with Velcro on the back of them –
other adhesive Velcro is on character’s shirts.
Plastic or real coins
Pencil, white paper, magazine to look from early 1900s

On one side of the stage is a bench. On the bench is a pencil, white paper, and a
magazine. The cover of the magazine should look like it is from the early 1900s-
perhaps with photos from Ladies Home Journal during that time period.

Children are seated on risers at the back of the stage. Every other child is holding a
poppy flower that they have either made in class, or has been bought at a dollar
store/craft store. The children between the kids holding poppies are holding white
wooden crosses made from balsa wood. These are kept hidden on the students’ laps
until they are needed for the skit.

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 The Story of In Flanders Fields and the Poppy –Remembrance Day Skit

Narrator: I am going to tell you the story about the famous poem In Flanders
Fields and how that poem inspired a woman to wear a poppy in remembrance and
how the world began to wear poppies every year.

The poem In Flanders Field was written on May 3, 1915, during the First World War
by a Canadian soldier named John McCrae.

John McCrae character walks across the stage and sits down on the bench. He
is dressed in “doctor” clothes with a stethoscope around his neck. On the
bench is a pencil and paper and a magazine.

Narrator: John McCrae was a doctor during the First World War treating
wounded soldiers who were fighting near Ypres in Belguim in the west province of
Flanders. There was lots of fighting going on in this area. The fields were muddy,
and had big holes in it, and it was not a very pretty place. But, nearby in the fields
where the fighting had stopped, lots of flowers were starting to bloom and one
flower that was growing everywhere was the poppy.

Children holding poppies raise them up.

Narrator: On May 3, 1915 John McCrae was very tired and he was very sad. One
of his close friends had just been killed in the fighting. They had to bury him in the
field where they buried all the soldiers who were fighting and had died - in the fields
where the poppies were growing.

Children holding white crosses hold them up.

As John McCrae sat and looked over the landscape, he picked up a pencil and a paper

John McCrae picks up pencil and paper.

and this is what he began to write…

Narrator (reciting poem slowly and with expression):

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: (students holding the crosses stand up)

short days ago

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We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: (students smiling)
and now we lie (students look downward-heads bowed, and slowly sit down
and hold up their crosses again)
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe

(students holding crosses and poppies look towards the fighting soldiers
entering stage left. The soldiers stand beside the kids on the risers. Soldier
students hold a pose of fighting beside the risers)
To you with failing hands we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
(end student on the poppy/cross risers passes a torch to the fighting soldiers
One of the soldiers takes the torch and holds it high while the other soldiers
look up at it)
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders field.
(fighting soldiers lower the torch, their heads, and slowly exit stage with the
torch)

Narrator:
Just as John McCrae finished writing his poem, another soldier came up to him.

Mailman soldier crosses stage and hands the doctor some letters then stands
beside him.

He was delivering the mail and the mailman handed him some letters and John
McCrae gave the soldier his poem and then he slowly walked away.

John McCrae exits stage slowly.

The soldier read the poem, thought it was very good and he followed John McCrae to
talk to him about sending the poem to be put in a newspaper or magazine for others
to read.

Mailman soldier runs off stage in same direction that McCrae left.

Students holding poppies and crosses, lower them and sit quietly.

Narrator:
WWI ended a few years later in 1918. A woman named Moina Michael was in New
York City in November 1918 where she was working at the War Secretaries
Conference.

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Moina character enters and sits at the bench.

Two days before November 11th, Moina was taking a break from her work and she
was reading a magazine.

Moina picks up the magazine from the top of the bench and pretends to read.

In the magazine she saw the poem In Flanders Fields and while she was reading the
poem, she came up with the idea of wearing a poppy to remember the men who had
died. Moina quickly went to the store and bought some fake silk poppies.

Moina character runs off stage left and returns quickly with Velcro paper
poppy and a bouquet of plastic poppies in her hands. She stands center stage.

Narrator:
Moina pinned one to her dress and she told the other people who arrived for the
conference why she was wearing it.

Several other conference-going students come on stage. Moina pretends to

talk to others and points to the magazine and her poppy.

They wanted to wear one too.

Moina gives the students poppies which they Velcro on their shirts.

Moina got very excited about the thought of having everyone in the United States
wear a poppy to remember, so she worked hard every year to try and encourage
people to wear a poppy in November to remember.

Moina and delegate students move to the side of the stage.

Madame Guérin character enters center stage with a box of poppies.

A French woman named Madame Guérin was inspired by Moina Michael and her
idea of the poppy as a memorial flower, so she decided to sell the poppies in France.
She thought that the poppy money should go to helping the men, women and
children who suffered so much because of the great wars.

Soon other countries, including Canada began to accept the poppy as a symbol of
remembrance and every year, millions of red poppies are made to be sold so that
people like us can remember and people who fight in wars can be helped.

Moina, Madame Guérin and other delegates are all standing in front wearing
poppies. Madame Guérin pretends to sell to others coming on stage. These
characters could be the fighting soldiers from the earlier scene or other

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students. They have coins with them which they drop into Madame’s box and
take a poppy which they Velcro on their shirts.

When all actors have a poppy, they go down on their knees so that students on
risers can be seen again.

Children on the risers, raise their poppies and crosses again.

John McCrae and the mailman soldier enter and kneel beside the other actors.

Narrator:
This is a wonderful story that began with a soldier, who was a doctor, and he wrote
a poem as he looked over a field of poppies growing between crosses of fallen
soldiers – and we remember…

The End

(Photo examples on following page)