Geography: Flags of the World

In addition to learning about the various countries of the world (see previous Geography post about world and country maps), children in both classrooms learn about the flags representing these countries. We usually start by introducing flags from North America (Canada, United States, and Mexico) since these are the countries and flags most familiar to the children.

The children learn about each flag by first learning the name and location of the country (e.g. United States in North America) and then being introduced to the flag and it's pictorial elements (e.g.: United States---stars and stripes in blue and red). They are then invited to make their own country flag by coloring a blank image of the flag (if they can write, they are also invited to write the name of the country the flag represents).

You can find printable flags for coloring here:

• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/827606868997785632/

• https://www.123coloringpages.com/country-flags/country-flags-1.gif

• https://en.islcollective.com/preview/201303/f/color-the-flags-fun-activities-games_48277_1.jpg

• https://dryuc24b85zbr.cloudfront.net/tes/resources/7132446/image?width=500&height=500&version=1439946034957
  

You can find information and color images of various flags here (or in the back of an atlas if you have one at home):

• https://www.visualcapitalist.com/24-iconic-world-flags-and-what-they-mean/
  

• http://www.flags.net/
  

• https://www.countries-ofthe-world.com/flags-of-the-world.html
  

Additional fun activity: 

You can explore your family tree by leaning about and making the flags of all of the countries represented in your family. Alternatively, make flags for friends for the countries where they are from. The sky is the limit, get creative! It is relatively simple to draw a flag for your child to color, most of them simply require some paper, a ruler, and a pencil. Enjoy!

Here are the flags I created with my son to represent our family and friends (see attached). We turned this into a fun "do you know this flag game" sharing pictures of the flags with friends and family over text or video calls for them to identify (that way the adults learned something new, too!).