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Classroom Activity 5
Classroom Activity 5
Create Your Own Flag
Level:
Intermediate
Time required:
90 minutes
Goals:
To create and describe a flag reflecting personal
qualities; to gain an
understanding of symbols; to
practice making comparisons
Materials:
colored pens, pencils, markers, or crayons; blank paper
for each student; your country’s flag ; copies of the
reading survey forms.
Preparation:
Do some research on your city’s flag—what do the colors
and symbols mean? Have the flag or a picture of the flag
in class.
Procedures:
1.
Tell students they are going to design personal flags—
their own
flags—but that first, you want them to think
about symbols by looking at
the flags of two countries:
your own country and the United States.
Explain that a symbol can be anything (e.g., a picture,
word, color) that represents—or symbolizes—something
else.
For example, birds often represent freedom because
they can fly,and green often represents nature because
many plants are green. But symbols can vary between
big cities.
2.
Divide students into groups of three or four.
Show your country’s flag
to the class.
Write on the board the following questions
for group discussion:
• What are the main colors of the flag?
• What things can you count on this flag?
• What symbols are on the flag
What meanings do the symbols have?
• What does this flag mean to you?
• Do you like this flag?
3.
Write the passage below on the board or, with
students back in their
groups, pass out copies of the
passage to each group and read the
selection to the
whole class. Have students read along and circle
unfamiliar words. The United States has many
symbols. The most famous is probably the flag.
The American flag has 13 red and white stripes.
It also has 50 white stars
on a blue background in the
upper left-hand corner. The stars represent
the 50 states.
The colors of the flag have meaning, too. Red is a
symbol of bravery, blue is a symbol of justice, and white
is a symbol of
purity.
Ask basic comprehension questions:
• What colors are in their country flag?
• How many stripes are there?
• How many stars are there?
• What do the stars represent?
4.
Have groups compare their governorate flag to
another governorate flag. Give them a few minutes to
list ways that the flags are similar
(the same or nearly
the same).
Then give them time to list ways that the
flags are
different. Students can consider any details, including
symbols.
5. Depending on your students’ level, groups can report
their similarities
and differences to the whole class in
phrases, or they can report by
using full sentences.
Here are examples:
• The flags are similar because both flags are/have ________.
• The flags are different because our flag is/ has ________, but the other flag is/ has ________.
6.
Write the following words on the board:
likes, dislikes, hopes,
beliefs.
Discuss these words with the class.
Make sure students understand them before continuing.
7. Tell students they are going to design flags to reflect
their own
likes, dislikes, hopes, and beliefs.
Provide questions to guide students:
• How old are you?
• How many brothers and sisters do you have?
• Where do you live?
• What is the best thing you have ever done?
• What activities do you like to do?
• Do you have animals or pets?
What kind? What are their names?
• What do you like to eat
• What are some things you are good at doing?
• What is a strong belief that you have?
• What do you hope to be in the future?
• Where would you like to go in the future?
8.
Hand out white paper and markers or colored pencils.
Tell students they
will design their own flags, using
symbols of their hopes, beliefs,
likes, and dislikes.
(Students can include one, some, or all of these,
as they choose.) Students decide on the color(s)
and symbols to use for their flags.
9. When students finish, have them write about their
flags on the paper back.
10.
Have students show their flags to the members of
their groups and have
each student describe his or her
flag to the group by using the
suggested sentence
starters, if necessary.
11. Have students pair off and compare each others' flags
by adapting the sentence structures they
used to compare
the country flags in Step 5.
12. Post the flags around the room. Students’ names
are on the front.
13. Hand out a survey form to each group, or have groups
create their own
forms. Students will use the forms to
record observations about the
flags. With your class,
decide on details to include on the survey forms.
14. Once groups have walked the gallery, they can
discuss the results of the survey.
Write these sentence starters on the board:
• All of the flags have ________.
• Most of the flags have ________.
• About half of the flags have ________.
Have
groups complete and discuss the sentences,
using their survey forms.
Ask groups to summarize what
they observed on the art walk or to choose
their most
interesting observation, then report to the whole class.
