Felt American Flag

We're taking a break from our current unit study to reflect on Memorial Day. I knew I wanted to create a felt American flag for Independence Day, but decided to make it ahead of schedule to have on Memorial Day (which means I cranked this out last night). It was pretty simple to make, and I made two so each of my children could have one. 

To make one, you'll need: one sheet of red felt, one sheet of white felt and one sheet of blue felt. I purchased my felt from Jo-Ann's. You can freely cut out the stars, or use a stencil, or use a small sequin star, as I did. I estimated the thickness of the white stripes and made them 3/4" wide. I cut out 6 white stripes. I did not cut any shorter, since they fit underneath the blue piece and this way the kids can line up the edges. 

Then I cut out the blue piece. I simply lined up all the white stripes and measured to where the fourth white line down met. Then I measured the piece of red felt and marked the halfway point and then marked a spot shortly less than that (since the blue doesn't meet perfectly in the center).

It was then time to cut out stars. I'll be honest, for a moment I thought I was crazy to think it was a good idea to cut out 100 stars (you'd only need 50 if you are making one). But oh well, it had to be done! Turns out it only takes about an hour to make that many stars. I also did not freehand them. I totally used a sequin star as a guide. I used my tiny fabric scissors to snip them out. Easy as that!

Sadly the blue piece was not large enough to accommodate the stars the way they are arranged on the flag (believe me, I tried so many times). But they fit comfortably scattered, and what matters is that there are 50 of them.

Even neatly lined up there is one leftover, so it squished its way in there and messed up the order!

I printed a few activity pages to go along with the flags.

Bean practiced writing in the letters to spell Massachusetts (where we live) and traced the outline of the state.

Munchkin colored in the Statue of Liberty and a picture of a bald eagle, the American symbol for freedom. 

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