Memorial Day Activity

I like to teach my children the meaning of holidays through activities.  Today as we talked about Memorial Day, we created an American flag using our own version of paper weaving.  We always try to use materials we have around the house rather than going out to buy things. 

Materials

Colored paper – red, white, and blue

Ruler

Razor knife and cutting board

Scissors

Glue stick

Foil stars (You could paint the stars or use chalk if you don’t have foil stars.)

• Draw horizontal lines on the red paper.  I used this as a ruler activity to show how to measure using eighth of an inch, but you could just draw the lines on the paper.
• Draw alternating vertical lines on every other stripe.  I used the width of the ruler to make these lines.  I tried to take a picture, but you could not see what I was doing.
• Use a razor knife to cut on these vertical lines (parents only).  You could also use scissors for this. 
• Cut thin strips out of white. 
• Weave the white strips though the red paper.
• Cut a blue rectangle from the blue paper.
• Glue the blue rectangle in the upper left corner of the flag
• Stick foil stars on the blue rectangle.