Flag Day Math

Friday, June 14 is Flag Day. The flag pictured on the left flies year-round outside our home in San Diego. We have to replace it each year because the sunny weather fades it to a light pink after 11 or 12 months. (Today it doesn't look as bright as it does in the photo—must be time to go shopping for a new flag.)

Flag Day is believed to have first originated in 1885 when B.J. Cigrand, a schoolteacher in Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, arranged for the pupils in his district to celebrate 'Flag Birthday'—the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes.

On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City, planned flag related ceremonies for the children of his school. His idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the State Board of Education of New York.

On June 14, 1891, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration. The following year, on June 14, the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution, celebrated Flag Day. Read more at http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html.

Help your students celebrate this special day with a math coloring page and an Excel Math flag word problem. Download the coloring page and print or copy one for each student. You may want to provide star stickers for your students to add to the blue field. Or have them draw stars in the field before coloring it.

USA Flag Coloring Page
Click here to download a copy.

In Excel Math, students tackle word problems in 2nd through 6th grades. In addition to shorter problems that occur regularly throughout the lessons, Excel Math has a unique take on story problems, called Create A Problem. With these more complex word problems, students are given a chance to express their own understanding of a story problem. Create A Problem exercises merge math and literacy as they help students develop higher-order thinking skills. Here's a flag Create A Problem from Second Grade.

Read more . . .

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New to Excel Math? Preview elementary math lessons that really work for Kindergarten through Sixth Grade on our website: www.excelmath.com.