A Flag for July 4th Craft

While my kids were at "Camp Grandma" they made these American flag projects at story time. The book that they heard was called I Pledge Allegiance, and it broke down the Pledge of Allegiance into pictorial references to make it easier for kids to grasp the big concepts, which I thought was pretty cool. The lady who read the story, Jill, said she was inspired by the torn paper illustrations, so I thought that they would have made torn paper flags. However, she must have decided it was easier to prep for a group by cutting the red strips and blue squares in advance using scissors. If you are doing this at home, I really think tearing the paper would be so cool, assuming the kids are old enough to do this themselves. Anyway, here is how we did this craft.

{Flags by Mia, Age 6 and Logan, Age 3 1/2}

Materials:

• white paper
• red and blue construction paper
• scissors (optional)
• glue stick
• wooden skewers (or plastic drinking straws)
• stapler (or tape)
• adhesive paper hole reinforcements (like this)

Directions:

1. Cut (or tear) white paper to the desired size. Ours are made from 8 1/2" x 11" computer paper that was cut in half, hamburger style. Any white paper would work.
2. Cut (or tear) squares from blue construction paper.
3. Cut (or tear) strips of red construction paper.
4. Design your flag. Both kids started by gluing their blue square to the white flag. (Mia did hers completely on her own, which is why it is in the opposite corner that it technically should be. This worked out nicely, though, for display.) Next, they glued on their red strips. (Note: The intent was to leave space in between for the white stripes. Mia understood this better than Logan did, of course, since she is older.)
5. Add some "stars." Jill gave them these white circle paper hole reinforcements, which I thought was clever. (I am always a fan of using what you have on hand!) You could also use star stickers, or draw your own stars, too. Torn white paper is another option that would look nifty.
6. Lastly, we tucked the wooden skewers into the end of the flag, rolled it over, and stapled them to secure. The staples poked out some, so tape might actually be a safer choice for little hands. (Note: I inserted the sharp end of the skewers so that they were hidden, for safety's sake, but I overheard one mom with older kids suggest that they should leave it poking out the bottom end so that they could stick them in the lawn. This sounded cool, but definitely short-term since these crafts were not made to last. I would, perhaps, stick them in an indoor plant, though.) Tip: If you are concerned about the safety of wooden skewers altogether, you can cut off the pointed end, or simply substitute a plastic drinking straw as we did in our 4th of July mini flag project from a couple of years ago.