How to Teach Kids About the History of the American Flag

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Laura from young writers workshop dot com and we are going to talk about how to teach kids about the history of the American Flag. Such an interesting topic and it can be a really great thing to do especially if you want to tie it into a study of the American Revolution. Or better yet, during the summer around the fourth of July is a great time to also talk a little bit about the flag, and how it came to be. So tie it in with a study of the American Revolution in order for them to learn about the flag in context. It's helpful to have a study of the revolution, make sure that they understand about the thirteen colonies since the symbolism of the flag is directly tied to the number thirteen and knowing about the colonies helps them to understand that symbolism. You can talk about the story of the Declaration of Independence and how in the declaration it talks directly about the thirteen colonies and their independence. You also might want to tell the story about Betsy Ross, although many people believe that that story is not true. It's an interesting story and it talks about the relationship that George Washington had with Betsy Ross and how because of knowing her, he chose her to design the flag and that's how our flag came to be. Another interesting thing is to study the Star Spangled Banner which is our National Anthem and that's where the nickname the star spangled banner came from, for our flag came from that song. Studying a little bit, reading the lyrics of the song will help kids to learn a little bit more about the way our flag was perceived. Children might have questions about how we came to have fifty stars on the flag, so it's also a good opportunity to talk about how our country has grown and explain to them that the, our new stars added the fourth of July after each state has during the Union. So that's the way that the flag has changed each fourth of July new stars added when new states joined the union. So those are some things that you can teach to children to share with them to help them learn a little bit more about the American flag."