Happy Independence Day, America!

This post was first published on July 4, 2010.

By Mrs. Yollis 

Buck says, Happy Birthday America!#doink @DoInkTweets #4thOfJuly pic.twitter.com/tALMm3BQFQ

— Linda Yollis (@lindayollis) July 4, 2016

July 4th is Independence Day in America!

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This document announced America's independence from Britain.

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Seven years ago I was with my family on the Fourth of July, and we had a special event planned for the day.

My family had three old, tattered flags that needed to be retired. So on July 4th, we had a retirement ceremony.

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The United States Flag Code states: "The Flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem of display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning."

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First, we sang some patriotic songs!

Then, my cousin Jon gave a short speech. Finally, we retired the old flags to the fire.

Click here to learn how to fold an American flag. 

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How will you spend the Fourth of July?

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!

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Here is the bulletin board we created!


Try this new interactive game: Guess the Flag!

What did you learn from the flag making experience?