United States Flag Bulletin Board

Work this bulletin board into your lesson plans by having students create U.S. or state flags and discussing their origins. View an example of this bulletin board idea for American patriotic holidays, like Veterans Day, the Fourth of July, and Flag Day.

Materials and Supplies

• Light-blue cloth background
• Dark-blue border
• Dark-blue letters
• An American flag
• A U.S. state flag (optional)
• 2 sheets of computer paper
• Any white paper that crayons can write on (Used computer paper, clean on one side, is good.)
• Crayons
• Scissors
• Wide-tipped black marker

Instructions

1. Display the United States flag. (As an option, let each child make a flag. Choose one or two and put them on the bulletin board.)
2. Place the flag of your state under the American flag, or let each child make one and choose one for the bulletin board.
3. Make four labels from two sheets of computer paper cut in half lengthwise. Print with the marker: 50 stars, 13 stripes, (name of your state), state flag.
4. Ask the children why our country's flag is important: The flag is a symbol of our country and of freedom. We honor it because we are free to choose jobs, homes, religion, and leaders for our country.
5. Out of respect for our flag, we must never let it touch the ground. It must be folded carefully when it is taken from the flagpole.
6. Ask the children what their state flag looks like. Tell them it is a symbol of their state and the people who have worked hard to make it a good state.
7. Factories, schools, government buildings (such as the courthouse and post office) display flags in front of, or on top of, the buildings every day.
8. When a very important American dies, flags are flown only halfway up the flagpole ("half mast") in honor of that person.
9. Get a children's book about our first flag, such as The American Flag by Ann Armbruster or Our Flag by Eleanor Ayer, and read it to the children.
10. With the children, count the stars on our flag. Each one stands for a state in the United States. Count the 13 red and white stripes. They stand for the first 13 colonies in our country.
11. Take a walk to look at the flag in front of, or on top of, your school, if your school displays one.
12. Let the children make flags from other countries and share them with the class.

More Bulletin Boards for Every Month
by Arnold Cheyney

This book is filled with what every teacher needs - more than 50 bulletin board ideas and activities for the whole curriculum and for every month of the year.

Grades K-3