Amanda Hensley Ed 417

American History The American Flag 3 rd Grade

Objectives The third grade students will: * understand the symbols within the American flag. * *gain knowledge of the history of the American flag. *understand the importance of the pledge of allegiance. *increase their patriotism for America.

Web Sites The Flag of the United States The Betsy Ross Homepage The American Flag Page Happy Birthday America Flag Day Quest

Materials Needed: Construction paper Markers Long paper for timeline Access to the internet

Web Sites

1. A Closer Look at the Pledge of Allegiance The students will be divided into five groups. Each group will be given a line of the pledge of allegiance to examine. The students will look up underlined words in a dictionary to find out what they really mean. (pledge, allegiance, republic, indivisible, liberty, justice, etc.) Each group will report their results to the class. Together, the class will summarize what the pledge means and why we say it.

Web Sites 2. The History of Our Flag After the class has studied the American flag, students will each be given an important time in the flag’s history. As a class, the students will decide how to piece the information together in the order that they happened. Once everyone agrees on the correct order, the information will be placed on the timeline that will remain in the classroom.

Web Sites 3. Symbols The students will learn about the various symbols the flag has, and what they represent. By searching the internet, they will find another important symbol for America. They will share their results with the class.

Web Sites 4. Flag Acronym The students will write an acronym for the word FLAG based on what the flag means to them.

F lying L ovely A merica G reat

Web Sites 5. A Collage of Flags Each student will be given a variety of materials to use as they each create a flag that represents themselves. They can include pictures, words, or any symbols they believe in.

The flag is an important symbol for the United States of America. What is a symbol? Can you think of any other kinds of symbols? Do you know of any other American symbols?

Other American Symbols

Where did our flag come from? Most people think that Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag in 1776, the year America was born.

The flag has changed many times throughout history. Some people made different versions of the American flag. The country used to only have 13 states. The first flag had 13 stars and 13 stripes, for each of the 13 states.

When new states were added to our country, the flag would change. This flag has 15 stars and 15 stripes.

Stars and Stripes The government decided to make 13 stripes because there were thirteen original states. A star would be added for each new state that joined our country.

The flag continued to change as new states were added.

Our Flag Today Today our flag has 50 stars, 1 for each state. It has 13 stripes for the 13 original states.

The Pledge of Allegiance We show pride for our country every time we say the pledge of allegiance. How else do we show pride for our country?

Flag Day June 14 th is National Flag Day. Many people display their flags all year long to show the pride they have in their country.

Displaying the Flag

Other Web Sites Used in this Presentation