Name that country! By recreating flags from around the world, you'll help your kid understand geography and widen her sense of the world. Because all flags tend to be colorful and filled with simple patterns and shapes, they're fairly easy to make...not to mention fun!
What You Do:
- Look online or in the back of a dictionary or atlas to find flags your child would like to make. Try to point out which countries are near hers, ones that speak a certain language, or even those your child has visited. These can be the “guide flags” for her garland. Obviously, if she wants to just find ones that are pretty or have her favorite colors, that’s fine too!
- To begin, have your child fold a piece of the white paper in half, top to bottom.
- Cut the paper along the fold. Your child should have two equal sized pieces of white paper. These rectangles are her flags. Create as many as she wants.
- Time to travel! Look at the countries that are most interesting to your child. You can get out a globe and have her look at it for inspiration or simply look at the images of the flags.
- Time to decorate! Use the construction paper and glue to form shapes and patterns, or simply use markers. Be sure to decorate both sides since they will both be visible from the hanging garland.
- Cut a piece of string as long as you wish. Figure out if it's going to go across a door (or across the room) and measure accordingly.
- Place a small amount of glue on the inside of the fold of the flag at the top.
- Then slip the flag over the string and hold in place. Repeat this with the remaining flags and your garland of countries is complete!
Keep up the learning by talking about the hanging garland. Ask your child to remind you of which country is represented by each flag. Try to get her introduce her to a few fun facts about the countries too.
Lisa M. Cope is a freelance writer who focuses on parenting and child development issues, among many others. She is the mother of two boys, ages five and two.