We did more learning about July 4th yesterday and today. We are also starting the day out by saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Yesterday the kids learned about fireworks and how they work. Today they did several 4th of July books that were read on YouTube. It’s not perfect, but I don’t have any books on 4th of July so it was the next best thing!
After their learning videos they got to craft. Yesterday we did a popsicle stick flag. It was actually pretty easy to make. For the bigger kids I got out 11 popsicle sticks for each flag. For my little one I got out 9 sticks. I made sure I had all my supplies together. You will need:
- Popsicle sticks
- Hot glue sticks and hot glue gun
- paintbrush
- red, white, and blue paint of your choice
- Scissors if you would like to cut sticks to make them smaller
- water to rinse paintbrush
- paper towel to dry paintbrush
- a tray, palette, etc to put paint on
Now that you have all your supplies together, plug in your glue gun and let it warm up. While it’s warming start to get your popsicles sticks in order of how you want them. You want them to be horizontal so they look like a flag. As I mentioned above, I used 11 popsicle sticks for the big kids- 8 to make the horizontal part, 2 to hold the flag together, and 1 to be the pole for the flag. For my younger kiddo I used 6 for the horizontal part, 2 to hold it together (these had to be cut down as they were longer than the flag), and 1 for the pole.
Now that my glue gun was warm I put hot glue on the back of my 2 sticks that would be vertical to hold the flag together. I did 1 stick at a time so I could make sure it wasn’t sticking out at the top or bottom and to make sure I had the horizontal part how I wanted it. After the glue was on the stick, I placed it on the left side of the horizontal part. Then I repeated for the right side. You will want to leave a little more space on one side so you have room to put your pole. I left the extra space on the right side and glued it next to the right vertical stick. Once it had cooled down and I was sure it was dry I took them over to the table and set up the paints for the kids. I also got the cup of water and paper towel ready for them. I had them sit down and get ready to paint!
They went to town! My littlest wasn’t as into painting the flag but he still gave it a go! In the end I think they turned out cute!
Today we made July 4th wreaths out of paper plates. I got all my supplies together: red, white, and blue construction paper, red, white, and blue crayons, scissors, paper plates, star cookie cutter, and glue sticks. I don’t have anything fancy to make stars so I traced the star onto the white construction paper using the cookie cutter. Then I put 1 piece of red construction paper behind the white on with the stars and a blue piece of construction paper behind that. I then trimmed the papers down so I had 3 rows of 3 stars.
Then I cut out the stars with the red and blue construction paper behind the white paper. This kept me from having to trace the stars on each piece of paper and then cut out each piece of paper. I think it saved time and effort. Once those were cut out I cut a hole in the middle of the plate. Now the kids get to do their thing!
I gave the kids all the supplies and let them get to work. I had them color the ring with their red and blue crayons. Once they had finished coloring, I opened the glue sticks for them (I only use washable glue sticks and crayons because mess)! The older 2 glued the stars on themselves. I had to help my youngest but he did it! My daughter then got the great idea to get the glitter out and use it to make hers sparkle. I was impressed. She actually didn’t make a mess this time. Not anymore than glitter already makes!
I think they turned out cute!
Another cute idea is to make your own July 4th flag shirts. I made these several years ago. I used regular cotton t-shirts and cut the sleeves arm following the line of the shirt. I also cut the neckline to make a v-neck for mine but kept the collar on the shirts for the kids. I cut out stars from cardboard and put them in place with painters tape to keep any paint from getting in the area for the stars. I then used the painters tape to tape off a square for the corner of the flag that would be painted blue with blue fabric paint and have the white stars in it. Then I used painters tape to tape off the stripes that would be white and used red fabric paint to paint the red stripes. I did use a t-shirt form board so the paint wouldn’t bleed through onto the back side. I then let the shirts dry and they were ready to go! I used a ribbon to tie the sleeve area back to make more of a racer back shirt! I don’t have specific step by step instructions or pictures because it was SO long ago. I think you can find a tutorial on Pinterest though if you need more specific instructions! I’ll see if I can find one and pin it to my Pinterest board. Find me on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/emmessymamalife
Have fun crafting with the kiddos in your life! They will love it and so will you!
