1. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on our Partners In Learning site.
Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location. And if you are using Windows 8, you can also use the Bing apps to learn more about this location and topic; the Travel and News apps in particular make great teaching tools.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Counting & Cardinality and Geometry
CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4.a When counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object.
CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4.b Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.
CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.A.1 Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes, and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, and next to.
CCSS.Math.Content.K.G.A.2 Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

2. Can you describe the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of shapes? What do the shapes represent?
© Paul Marotta/Getty Images
Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.

3. Can you describe the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of shapes? What do the shapes represent?
Memorial Day is a US federal holiday wherein the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces are remembered. For last year’s field of flags display in Boston Common, there were 33,000 flags planted in a field. That’s the number of Massachusetts natives who fell in service from the Civil War to the present.
The flag of the United States is also known as the “American flag”, “Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory", and "The Star-Spangled Banner".
Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.

4. Can you describe the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of shapes? What do the shapes represent? 1
Web Search & Counting
What shapes do you see on the flag of the United States?
Search Query: “American flag”
Using Bing Image Search, display an image of the flag of the United States and ask students to identify the shapes on the flag. There are two main shapes – stars and rectangles. You can also ask the students to consider how else they might identify the many long stacked rectangles – see if they can come up with the term “stripes”. Ask the students to draw the shapes they see on the whiteboard and write the names of the shapes underneath.
You can also ask the students to identify how many sides there are on the two shapes they identified.

5. Can you describe the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of shapes? What do the shapes represent? 2
Counting
How many of each shape is there on the flag?
Search Query: “American flag”
Using the same Bing Image of the flag of the United States, ask the students to identify how many of each shape appears on the flag. You can ask the students to count out loud as a group as you point to each shape, or you can ask individual students to take turns helping to count. Ask the students to write down the numbers next to the shapes they drew on the board (50 stars, 14 rectangles). You can also ask the students to count how many stars are in each row, and how many rows of stars are shown.

6. Can you describe the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of shapes? What do the shapes represent? 3
Counting
Identify the different colors of each shape and count how many of each shape is a different color.
Search Query: “American flag”
Using the same Bing Image of the flag of the United States, ask the students to identify the colors associated with each shape and write these under the shapes and numbers on the board. Then ask the students to count how many of each color and shape combination appears on the flag. This should be added to the content on the whiteboard so that it shows a rectangle with three colors - “blue: 1; red: 7; white: 6” and a star with “white: 50”. Ask the students how many total stripes appear on the flag and write that separately under the totals of rectangles.

7. Can you describe the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of shapes? What do the shapes represent? 4
Web search
What do the stars on the flag represent?
Search Query: “American flag Stars”
Ask students to guess what the 50 stars on the flag represent. You can give them a hint like “What other facts about the United States include the number 50?” Use the Bing web search for “flag of the United States Stars” to give them the answer, or to verify their correct answer. Wikipedia has a great definition of the flag of the United States with additional links for the “states of the United States”. The Gettysburgflag.com link will provide additional photos of the many flags throughout history as more states were added, ending with the current 50-star flag.
Add the word “states” under the star shape on the whiteboard.

8. Can you describe the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of shapes? What do the shapes represent? 5
Web Search
What do the red and white stripes (rectangles) on the flag represent?
Search Query: “American flag Stripes”
Ask students to guess what the 13 stripes represent. If you visited the Gettysburgflag.com link, you can remind them that the first flag had 13 stars and 13 stripes. Use a Bing web search to discover the answer or to verify the answer for the students. The Wikipedia link for “flag of the United States” provides a great secondary link to information about the “thirteen British colonies”.
Add the word “colonies” under the red and white stripes total on the whiteboard.

9. Can you describe the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of shapes? What do the shapes represent?
Ask the students to tell you about the flag of the United States using numbers and the names of the shapes. You can remind them to refer to the board. Prompt them to give you a full description that includes the following:
There are 50 white stars on the flag on a blue rectangle background
The stars represent the 50 states in the United States of America
There are 13 red and white stripes on the flag
The stripes represent the 13 original British colonies