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Students learn about Memorial Day here while using crumpling skills to create an appropriate flag decoration
Art, Social Studies
By – Paula Hrbacek
Primary Subject – Art
Secondary Subjects – Social Studies
Grade Level – K
- Memorial Day is the third Monday in May. It was originally called Decoration Day, and was a day to decorate the graves of soldiers from the Civil War who fought for both the North and South. It was intended to be a day of reconciliation, or forgiveness, when we would stop being divided, and come together to honor those who gave their all. After WWI, it was changed to a day to remember any soldier who fought in any war.
- Cub Scouts in Pensacola will be decorating the graves at Barrancas National Cemetery with flags to honor the soldiers who died in our wars. Maybe your students would like to do something similar.
- Here is a simple craft project that looks like the grave decorations some people place on graves. Kindergartners can use this craft to practice fine motor skills of crumpling and gluing paper.
Objective: The student will learn about Memorial Day, and will use crumpling skills to create a decoration similar to a grave decoration. Materials Needed:
- Copies of flag pattern
- Tissue paper (red, white, and blue)
- Glue or glue sticks
- Make copies of flag pattern on white paper.
- A picture of a flag can be drawn by hand, or found in your word processor’s clip art directory.
- Tear tissue into pieces about two inches square.
- Crumple the paper into little balls that look like carnations.
- Apply glue to the flag pattern, one area at a time.
- A glue stick works best for Kindergartners because they haven’t learned how to squeeze a bottle gently yet.
- If white glue is used, spread the glue out over the area in a thin coat so that the paper doesn’t become soggy.
- Press the tissue balls onto the flag, filling in each area.
- As the students work, explain the symbolism of the fifty stars and thirteen stripes.
- For information about our flag and flag etiquette, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_United_States .
Florida Sunshine State Standards:
- A. Media, techniques and processes
- 1.3 Organization/principles of design
- B Non-verbal communication of meaning
- C Art history
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