Our American Flag Author: Jazmin Luna

Dedication: To the children in my future preschool classroom Copyright information: Jazmin Luna September 27, 2016 Best suited for children ages 3-7 This story is about the American flag and how it got its stripes and stars. I integrated math by including a page in the book where children count the stars on the flags and count the stripes on the flag. I made it interactive by having the questions written on the page and they have to lift the tag at the end of the question to check if their answer was correct. Description of social studies theme: How the American Flag got its striped and stars. I chose this theme because I think it is important for children to know what the pledge of allegiance is, since it is a part of the everyday morning routines in schools in America, but not only what the pledge of allegiance is; I want the children to learn about the details of the flag so they understand the meaning, value, thought, and heart that was put into what is now the symbol of our country.

Resources for information & pictures http://www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/history/old-glory/ Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55244 http://feelgrafix.com/group/american-flag.html http://www.myproudflag.com/articles.html http://www.davidcourreges.com/usflag.html https://dbsenk.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/the-pledge-of- allegiance/ http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/co lonies.htm http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/space/moon.html

240 years ago on January 1st, 1776, General George Washington's forces were under British control, so he ordered the raising of the Grand Union Flag.

But it took a year to become official But it took a year to become official. On June 14, 1777, Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act that made the flag official.

So he got help from a friend named Elizabeth Griscom, known as Betsy So he got help from a friend named Elizabeth Griscom, known as Betsy. She sew what would be the first American flag. What shape do the stars on the flag make? Circle!

Sing and do motions with your finger: Here is a circle, How can you tell? It goes around and round no end can be found It’s a circle, It’s a circle!

Our flag through history After the first flag, there were a lot of changes that were made by presidents that added stripes and stars to symbolize what America was becoming.

In the flag the color red symbolizes hardiness and valor, white represents purity and innocence, and blue represents vigilance, perseverance and justice.

13 6 7 How many stripes are on the flag? How many white stripes? How many red stripes? What shape is the flag? 6 7

* * * * * * * * * * How many stars are on the flag? Lets count the stars together! * * * * * * * * * * Count the first row together. There are 10 in each row equaling 50 total. You can count one by one, or count by 10 (10,20,30,40,50)

Then, of coarse we needed a song to go with the greatest symbol of our country, so in 1892 Francis Bellamy wrote the official pledge of Allegiance. When do we say the pledge of allegiance in our classroom?

The stripes represent the 13 original colonies and the stars represent the 50 states in the union.

And now our flag has even been to the moon! The first of all 6 American flags on the moon today, was planted by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission.

Moon Fun Facts A natural satellite is a space body that orbits a planet, a planet like object or an asteroid It is the fifth largest moon in the Solar System. Learn more about the other moons in the Solar System. •The average distance from the Moon to the Earth is 384403 kilometers (238857 miles). •The Moon orbits the Earth every 27.3 days. •The Moon is very hot during the day but very cold at night. The average surface temperature of the Moon is 107 degrees Celsius during the day and -153 degrees Celsius at night.

Reflection Thanks to this activity I learned things about the flag that I didn’t know. Now I understand better why there are people who take such pride and love for the flag. It took a lot of years and different designs to get to the one who represents the USA today. Thanks to this activity I learned that it is a little difficult to create a story about history that is solely based on facts because I feel like facts can sometimes become very boring and turn into a long lecture. However I learned that keeping things simple and easy to understand is better because the chances of them remembering more facts are higher then me reading a paragraph and them zoning out because its so boring. I also learned that there is a little bit of math and science in every social studies topic we just never really pay attention to it but its important for teachers to keep that in mind when creating activities for children like this one to integrate all social studies, math, and science together so the children can get the most out of activities.