Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Fractional Flags!

As we looked at the Flag Counter in our sidebar, we were excited to discover that we have visitors from SIX of the SEVEN continents.



We had an excellent math/geography lesson using our visitor flags.


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First, we wrote the names of the visiting countries on slips of paper.

Then we each picked a country name.

Next we went to the back of our dictionaries and looked for the flag so we could make one.


Mrs. Yollis told us that thinking about fractions can be helpful when making a flag.

We noticed that many flags were divided into third or fourths.


Bahrain is one third white and two thirds red.

Canada was tricky to draw because of the maple leaf, but half of the flag is white and half of the flag is red.

Italy's flag is divided into three equal parts. One third green, one third white, and one third red.


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Below is the color key we used for the continents.


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Here are some of the flags from our South American visitors.


Paraguay's flag is divided into thirds.

Brazil has the design in the center third of the solid flag.

Chile's flag is tricky. The bottom three sixths (or half) are red, two sixths are white, and one sixth is blue.

Argentina is divided into thirds. Two thirds are light blue and one third is white with a sun.



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Below are some of the flags from Europe.


Poland's is half red and half white.

Czech Republic's is also half red and half white, but it has a blue triangle on the left.

Russian Federation's is one third red, one third blue, and one third is white

Portugal's is one third green and two thirds red.


Spain's flag is two fourths red and two fourths yellow. (In other words, half and half.)

Germany's is split into thirds. One horizontal third is black, one third is red, and one third is yellow.

Luxembourg's is also horizontal thirds, but one third is blue, one third is red, and one third is white.

France's flag is divided into vertical thirds. One third is blue, one third is white and one third is red.

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Here are some of the flags from Africa.

Egypt is divided into thirds, and Morocco is solid red with a star in the center.


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We have had visitors from MANY countries!

6 of our flags are from North America.
7 are from South America.
20 flags are from Europe.
5 are from Africa.
17 flags are from Asia.

2 of our flags are from Australia.

Thw WHOLE project was fun!

* * * * *

Here is the bulletin board we created!


Try this new interactive game: Guess the Flag!


What did you learn from the flag making experience?

5 comments:

  1. Dear Class,

    I had a great time doing all the fractions and coloring! Did you have a great time too?

    Love,
    Taylor S.

    @Mrs.Yollis,
    P.S. I will always comment on our awesome blog!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Taylor S.,

    Thank you for being such a big part of this blog. Not only did you always contribute to stories, but you regularly leave meaningful (extra-credit level) comments, too. I'm glad I can count on you to be a part of our blog in the future. :-)

    This Fractional Flag post got publish so close to the last day of school that it hasn't had many comments. :-( Too bad.

    What I loved about this post was that it was such a great mix of geography, math, writing, and art. I think everyone learned a lot about countries of the world that they will never forget.

    Love,
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am going to use your ideas for the flag and fractions lessons with my class next year. What a wonderful idea. I will be teaching a grade 4/5 class in a new school. They haven't done much blogging, if any, before so I will be sure to show them to your class blog as an example of what we can do.

    Jane Smith, Ottawa, Ontario
    56js.ca
    portablepd.ca
    portableradio.ca

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Wow! What a fun thing to do, make flags of many countries. I'd like to do that in class and I'll reserve
    Brazil. The Brazilian flag is a cool design to me. Plus, Brazil is a giant country in South America.

    From,
    Ben

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Mrs.Yollis,
    I think that is amazing you color the flags and you tell what counties they are!

    Your student,
    Nick

    ReplyDelete

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