Student: Tessa VanderStel School: Riverview Elementary School

IWU Supervisor: Dr. Soptelean Co-op Teacher: Mrs. Yeakle

Teaching Date: April 11, 2018 Grade Level: Kindergarten
Lesson Title: The American Flag and Our Freedom

Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template
Social Studies: DSS LESSON PLAN
2007 ACEI Standards

READINESS
I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s) – Students will recognize that the American flag is a symbol of the United
States.
B. Objective(s) – After discussing the symbolism of the American flag, students will be
able to connect the symbols with their correct colors by holding up either red, white, or
blue pieces of paper.
After completing the two stations, students will understand that other people are
involved in their freedom, and will recognize the colors used in the American flag
C. Standard(s) – NCSS: Civic Ideals and Practices

IAS: K.2.2 Identify and explain that the President of the United States is the
leader of our country and that the American flag is a symbol of the United States.

II. Materials & Management

A. Materials: slips of blue, white, and red pieces of paper for each student, flag
outlines, cut up squares from magazines/from construction paper, glue, stickers,
stamps, pencils, crayons, white cardstock, and PowerPoint
B. Time: 50 minutes
C. Space: On the carpet for anticipatory set and direct instruction, move to tables
around the room for stations, move back to carpet for closure.
D. Behavior: I will tell students ahead of time that they may only speak during the
lesson if they raise their hand and I call on them. Mrs. Yeakle has a clip chart in
her classroom, so I will clip down students who speak out of turn. I will also clip
up students who are listening particularly well. During stations, I will instruct
students to follow the normal rules for working in groups: voice level 2, asking for
permission before leaving station, and focusing on the task at hand until it is
completed.
E. Technology: Computer for PowerPoint.

III. Anticipatory Set (3 minutes)

There is a flag at the front of our classroom. I will tell my students that we are going
to play I-Spy. I spy with my little eye something that is shaped like a rectangle. I will
randomly draw out student names and call on them. After a few guesses, I will give
another clue. I spy with my little eye something that is shaped like a rectangle and is
 partly blue. Call on a few more students. I spy with my little eye something that is
shaped like a rectangle and is partly blue…red… and white. Call on a few more
students. If students still haven’t guessed the flag, I will end with: I spy with my little
eye something that we look at every morning when we say The Pledge of Allegiance.
• Purpose: Today we are going to learn about the American flag because it is a symbol
of our country and the freedom that we have in this country.

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

III. Adaptation to Diverse Students
ELL – For the student that is an English language learner (and to the benefit of the rest
of the class), I will have important words from my lesson (bravery, purity, etc.) up on
the PowerPoint.

IV. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)

Input (20 minutes) –
 The flag is something that is very small – it is about the same size as you! But it
symbolizes something very big. It represents our entire country! And all the parts of it
have very special meanings.
 Each of the colors on the flag have special meanings that say something about our
country.
o White means purity and innocence. This means that our country is very pure – we
try to doing what is right instead of what is wrong.
o Red means bravery and courage. Can anyone tell me what they think it means to
be brave? Call on students. It means being able to face something that is really
difficult or really scary. So it would be very brave if you fell down while skating,
but got back up and tried again. It takes a lot of bravery to stand up for someone
who is being bullied.
o Blue means justice. Justice (I have a student named Justice) do you know what the
word justice means? Wait for her response. Justice means doing something that is
fair and honest. This means always telling the truth. Blue also stands for
perseverance. Another word for this is persistence. Does anyone know
perseverance and persistence mean? Call on students. Perseverance means
working really hard to meet your goal. You all have very good perseverance at
learning your sight words and at becoming better readers!
 Assessment: I will give each student red, white, and blue strips of paper. Then I will say:
Which color represents bravery? I will ask students to hold up the color that they think
represents that word. Which color represents justice, or telling the truth? I will continue
this method, repeating questions as necessary until all students are holding up the right
colors.
 The stars and stripes also have special meanings!
o The 50 stars stand for each of the states in the United States! So Indiana, our
state, is represented by one of the stars.
 o The 13 stripes represent the 13 original British colonies. When America was first
formed, it only had these 13 states.
 The most important thing that I want you to remember about the American flag is that it
represents freedom. Does anyone know what freedom means? Call on students.
o Freedom means being able to make choices for yourself. This could mean that you
have religious freedom – you can practice whatever religion you want to. You
have the freedom to live where you want and to get the kind of job that you want.
Lots of countries don’t have this kind of freedom.
o I am very thankful that I have freedom. I would like to say thank you to someone.
Who do you think I could thank? (Who fights for our freedom?) Call on students.
There are lots of people that protect our freedom – soldiers who fight in the
military are some of the people that we should thank.
 (Station 1) Today you are going to write letters to soldiers in the military! You are going
to write these words on your letter: “Thank you for protecting my freedom!” Make sure
you write your name on the card so that the soldier knows who the card is from. You are
also going to draw pictures on the cards. You can draw pictures of the flag, of yourself,
or just of anything that you think the soldier might like! There are some stickers that you
can put on your card, and some stamps that you can use.
 (Station 2) You are also going to make your own American flag. I have pieces of paper
like this (show flag worksheet) that you are going to use to make your flag. I have red
and blue pieces cut out from magazines and red and blue pieces of construction paper
that you can glue on to the flag to make something that looks like this (show example). I
also have some star stickers if you want to use those. You might notice that there are only
8 stripes on this flag instead of 13. Also, there aren’t enough star stickers for you to put
50 stars on your flag. That would take a lot of time! But you should still use the right
colors because remember, the colors symbolize very important things about our country!

Output - active learning – parallel stations (22 minutes – 10 minute stations and 2 minutes
for transitions)

 I will have four stations set up around the room, but two will be mirror images of one
another. There will be 5 students in each station (one station will have 6). These stations
will be at the three tables in the room and one station will be on the carpet. I will have
groups already created and will dismiss students to each table by groups. I will instruct
students to bring their pencil boxes with them so that they have glue, pencils, and
crayons.
 I will introduce these stations to the students before I dismiss them from the carpet. (See
above for scripting).
o Station 1: Write a letter: At this station I will have white cardstock already folded
for the students. There will be stickers and stamps that they can use to decorate
 their cards. I will have the words “Thank you for protecting my freedom!” printed
out and set at their station so that they can copy this on to their cards.
o Station 2: Create a flag: At this station I will have cut pieces of magazines and
construction paper so that they can make flag collages. I will have enough flag
outlines for each student.
 Each station will last for about 10 minutes. I will tell students ahead of time that when
they hear the bell ring, that means that they need to switch to the next station. They will
be instructed to leave their cards and their flag collages at the station before the move
onto the next one.
 At each station I will have a supervisor to help students with gluing and to keep them on
task (My cooperating teacher, Ellie Stemple, and Alex Swink). I will also help at a
station, but after a few minutes I will get up to walk amongst the stations and ask students
questions.
 I will have three picture books that I will set in the middle of the classroom. I will instruct
students before dismissing them to their tables: Once you are done with making your
American flag or your card, you can look through these books. These two (From Cloth to
American Flag by Melanie Mitchell and Betsy Ross by Becky White) are books about
how American flags are made, and about the woman that created the American flag. This
one (Flag by Willian Crampton) is a book about all different kinds of flags that are used
around the world. Make sure you share these books with your classmates – two or three
of you can look at a book at the same time.

V.Check for understanding.

 When I walk around to stations, I will ask the following questions to check for
understanding:
o Station 1:
 Do you know any people who are soldiers in the military? Have
you ever thanked them for protecting your freedom?
 Tell me about this picture that you are drawing – why do you
think the soldier that you are sending this letter to would like that
drawing?
o Station 2:
 What does the color blue stand for? (justice and perseverance)
When is a time that you have had to show perseverance? When
did you not give up?
 What does the color red stand for? (bravery and courage) When is
a time that you had to show courage?
VI. Review learning outcomes / Closure (5 minutes)
 If students were not able to answer questions accurately at station 2, I will go
back over the PowerPoint and review what each of the colors mean.
  Conclusion: I will observe students at station 1 and see which students draw
pictures that either demonstrate the flag or freedom in some way. I will set these
letters aside to show at the end. I will ask these students to explain their pictures.
 Today we learned about the American flag as a symbol of our country. The
colors, the stars, and the stripes all symbolize different things! Most importantly,
the flag symbolizes our freedom.
 The flag is something that is very small – but it is a lot bigger than itself. It
symbolizes the freedom that our country has!

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

A. Formative: Students will hold up red, white, or blue slips of paper during the direct
instruction in order to demonstrate that they understand what each color on the flag
represents.
Students will answer informal questions from the teacher at their stations (see “check for
understanding”).
B. Summative: From stations: Students will turn in flag collage and letter. The flag collage
will demonstrate that the students know where the red, white, and blue parts of the flag
are, and the letter will demonstrate that the students recognize they should be thankful for
their freedom.

.
REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS
1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
a. Bloom’s Taxonomy
b. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
7. Was the formative assessment where students held up red, white, or blue slips of paper
accurate? Or did students just look around to see what their peers were holding up?
8. Were students well behaved during the stations? What rules could I put in place next
time I do stations or centers?
Flag Outline

Example of Flag Collage