U.S. Flag Facts and History Activity

Directions: Use your Internet research skills and your observation skills to find the answers. Write it on your answer sheet.
Many of these questions are on the U.S. Citizenship test which is given to people who apply to become U.S. citizens.

1. What are the colors of the United States flag?

 

2. How many stars are there in our flag?

 

3. What color are the stars on our flag?

 

4. What do the stars on the flag represent?

 

5. How many stripes are there in the flag?

 

6. What colors are the stripes?

 

7. What do the stripes on the flag represent?

 

8. Write one rule about displaying or handling the flag.

 

9. Francis Scott Key wrote a song about the flag of the United States.
What is the flag called in the song?

 

How is this song important?

 

 

10. What role does the United States flag play when we honor military people who have died?

 

 

11. Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. Imagine they have just become a state.
When would the star be added to the U.S. flag?

 

 

12. Write a rule about what a person/citizen should do during the playing of the Nation Anthem.

 

13. John Philips Sousa wrote a song related to the US flag.
Name it.

 

When would you expect to hear it played? Why?

 

14. How many stars were in the US flag, when your home state joined the Union?

 

Challenges -

You are designing a school flag. You choose to use the same ratio of width to length, as the U.S. Flag.
What is that ratio?

 

Do the math. You say the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of school each day.
How many times will you have recited it, by the time you graduate from high school? (Assume you never miss a day of school).

 

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
~Francis Bellamy, The Youth's Companion, 8 September 1892

Investigations:

red star USFlag.org has information about all the United States Flags. Use a spreadsheet to examine some flag facts. Enter the number of stars, the date it became the official flag, the number of years it was the official flag, the number of stripes, and the number of Presidents that served under each flag. Use a function or formula to calculate the number of years each flag was in service.

Which flag had the longest time in service?
Which had the shortest time?
Which had the most Presidents?
What is the average number of years a flag has been in service?

red star Write three questions regarding your state's official flag.

red star Fourth of July Celebration Plan project

 

flag

Internet Hunts / Nature / Computers / Puzzles & Projects / Pennsylvania Projects / Problem Based Learning / Site map / Home

2006 Cynthia J. O'Hora posted 12/2006 All trademarks, copyright and logos belong to their respective owners.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

tree icon Save a Tree - use a digital answer format - Highlight the text. Copy it. Paste it in a word processing document. Save the document in your folder. Answer on the word processing document in a contrasting color (not yellow) or font (avoid blackmore, brodfont dear or other ornate artistic fonts). Save frequently as you work. Be sure to enter your name & the date at the top of the document. Submit via email attachment or class dropbox. Bad things happen: Save a copy of the response document for your records.

Proof read your responses. It is funny how speling errors and typeos sneak in to the bets work. smiling icon How to: Make your own printer ready paper answer sheet with lines.