Olympics 2012: Create a British Flag

The 2012 Olympics are right around the corner. These events are great to celebrate geography, success, history, politics and culture. We love flags in our home. The colors, shapes and figures included in a country’s flag tells us a story and provides a wonderful opportunity for learning. The British Flag is beautiful with its simple colors and shapes. Plus the flag is actually three flags combined (England’s Cross of St. George, Scotland’s Cross of St. Andrew and Ireland’s Cross of St. Patrick), which makes for an interesting conversation about history, religion and geography. This flag is perfect for an activity.

Here is how we created a British Flag for the 2012 Olympics

  Materials:

• Construction Paper {1 blue & 1 red piece}
• Scissors
• A Color and Black & White Print Out or Image of British Flag
• Glue & Bowl for Glue
• Small Brush

Approach:

• Print out 2 copies of a black & white British Flag
• Cut out the shapes of the flag from one copy
• Leave the other copy to be “designed” by your child
• Print out a color copy or bring up an image of the British Flag for reference
• Trace the Flag’s shapes on the construction paper (triangles for blue and parallelograms for red*)
• Leave the shapes, the color print out and the black & white print out on a tray for my son to discover
• When I noticed him discovering the tray, I pull out the glue, a small bowl and a small brush and sat down with him
• We talked about the flag, England and the Olympics
• We talked about the shapes presented on the tray and how the colors match the shapes on the flag.
• He immediately began matching the shapes to the black & white print out and with only a bit of struggle finished the flag on his own
• Display the flag

Thank you for choosing to read this post today! I hope that we inspired you! Marnie * We did not have any red construction paper. I found thin rough red sponges (for scrubbing pans) in our cabinet. I used this material in place of the construction paper. The result was a great sensory experience for our 3 year old. You can use a variety of colored materials so get creative!

For more great projects that teach children about other states and countries, check out these posts:

• Celebrate Cinco De Mayo
• Food and Geography
• State Postcard Challenge