by Emma Riley Sutton

Created on: June 11, 2008   Last Updated: June 25, 2008

Flag Day is a wonderful time to have children create crafts and learn a bit of history at the same time. There are many different crafts children can make that are not the same old Flag Day flags. With a little creativity, the possibilities for crafts are endless. Depending on the ages and abilities of the children making these crafts, adult help and supervision may be necessary.

Instead of making the standard rectangular-shaped flag, have the children make a flag in the shape of the United States. A map of the United States can be traced for the outline. The children can either color this outline of the U.S. or paste the stars and stripes on it. As they work on this, explain to them that each of the stars represent a state, why the colors were chosen and that the thirteen stripes stand for the original thirteen colonies. Older children may want to take this a step further and draw or trace the different states on their map. This flag map can even be glued to a piece of cardboard and cut out to make puzzle. If it is the plan to make a puzzle, it would be easier to color or paint the stars and stripes on it. Gluing them on might make the puzzle difficult to cut.

Just as our founding fathers used the side view for many of their portraits, children today can do the same. Simply tape up a piece of white paper on the wall and have the child sit or stand in front of it. Position a light so that the child's shadow falls on the paper and then trace around the shadow. These can be colored or painted. American flags can be drawn around this little American or they can be cut out without an decorations around the "shadow picture." Either way, these pictures are suitable for framing. As they are working on this project, take the opportunity to talk about our founding fathers and the sacrifices they made so that we could be free today.

Baking a cake may not, technically be a craft, it is still something children can make to celebrate Flag Day. A "Jell-O cake" is simple and fun to make. Simply use your favorite white cake recipe (or mix) and bake as you normally would. While the cake is cooling, make any red flavor of Jell-O. Follow the directions on the Jell-O box, substituting a clear soda or ginger ale for the hot water. Strawberry-flavored soda can also be used for extra flavor instead of the clear soda. Using an ice pick or tooth pick, poke holes in the cooled cake and gently pour the modified Jell-O mix over the cake. Be sure the cake is completely cooled before doing this! Just before serving, frost with whipped topping and decorate with strawberries and blueberries. Arrange the fruit so that it looks like the American flag. As you are helping the children with this, you might want to talk about how differently the people who lived when our flag was first created cooked and baked. This is also a great time to talk about math (fractions, specifically) as you measure the ingredients.

These are just a few possibilities for fun crafts children can make as they learn about and celebrate Flag Day. Depending on the individual children, they may or may not need a lot of supervision and help completely these projects. These crafts are wonderful ways for children to understand America's history and why our flag means so much to us.

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