Celebrating the Fourth of July at The Holiday Zone: Independence Day Art and Craft Projects for Young Learners

Coloring Pages

	log cabin
	Bald Eagle and shield
	Liberty Bell
	Man marching in a parade

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Baton Mania

Cover the bottom of a paper towel roll with heavy paper. Drop beans, rice, sand, small pebbles, bells, and/or other desired "noisemakers" into the tube, then cover the top end. (I use plain white paper with two criss-cross layers of clear packing tape to hold it in place.) Wrap tube in red, white, or blue paper, and decorate as desired. Red or blue masking tape stripes on white paper are one possibility. Star stickers offer another easy options. Colored or painted designs afford a third ... the possibilities are limited only by one's imagination. As a finishing touch, add crepe paper streamers (cut 2-inch crepe paper into 1/2-inch to 1-inch wide strips) to each end. Crank upsome Sousa tunes and march, march, march.

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Stars and Stripes

From a sponge, cut out star shapes. Cut another rectangular sponge into 1" strips.

Provide children with blue and red paint as well as white paper. Show them pictures of American flags from the original design representing the thirteen colonies to today's design. Let them use sponges to re-create various flag designs. (You might wish to assign each child a different flag, then allow children to practice placing them in chronological order once dry.)

After flags have been created, encourage children to create other designs using the stars and stripes.

Note: If working with young children, you might pour a very thin layer of paint into a styrofoam tray. This helps limit the amount of paint children get on the sponge and also reduces the danger of spills.

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Painted Fireworks

Provide children with red, blue, white, gold, and orange paints; 6-8" pieces of yarn; disposable toothbrushes; and paint smocks. Cover painting area with newspaper or plastic, and make sure no portion of children's clothing is exposed.

Show children how to drag yarn through paint, then over paper to create wavy lines. Next, show children how to use paintbrush to spatter paint.

Finished "painting" will look very much like a picture of a fireworks display.

Variation: Instead of string, use marbles. Place a sheet of paper in a edged tray (a cookie sheet or baking pan works well.) Dip a marble in the desired color of paint, deposit it in the pan, and roll around to create a design. Repeat with other colors as desired.

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Patriotic Scratchwork

Give each child a small piece of paper (half sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 or A4 paper work well), and direct children to cover the paper completely with one or more bright crayons or oil pastels. Once papers are completely covered -- no white showing -- have children color over the bottom layer of colors with a black or dark blue crayon or oil pastel. (Oil pastels are ideal for this project, but crayons will work.) Once the papers are completely covered in black, hand each child a wooden scratch stick. Encourage them to scratch patriotic designs onto the paper and allow the bottom layer of color to shine through.

Very young children may restrict colors on the bottom layer to red, orange, and yellow and randomly scratch a fireworks display onto their papers.

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Revolutionary Patchwork

Give each child a piece of white paper between 4" x 6" and 6" x 8". Direct children to draw scenes from the Revolutionary War on their papers. After drawings are complete, show children how to mount drawings on red construction paper. (Red paper should exceed dimensions of white paper by at least one inch.) After pictures have been mounted on red paper, they may be mounted on a sheet of blue poster board in chronological order. Children may then neatly print or type labels (one sentence to one paragraph, depending on language ability) to describe their drawings.

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A Family Flag

Ask children to look at the American flag and name the colors it contains. Explain that each color used in a flag has a special meaning. In the American flag, for instance, the blue stands for justice, the white stands for purity, and the red stands for courage.

Not only the colors but also the symbols on the flag are significant. The original flag bore thirteen stars and thirteen stripes--one for each of the colonies. Today the American flag proudly displays fifty stars, one for each state in the union. The thirteen stripes remain unchanged, reminding America of its beginning as thirteen colonies.

Ask children to think of items that have special significance to them or their family. Direct them to create a family flag, using only the most important of these symbols. You might also share the meanings of the following colors commonly used on flags so that children can choose appropriate colors for their designs.

blue		justice; piety; sincerity
black		grief; sorrow
green		hope
orange		strength; endurance
purple		high rank
red		courage; valor
red-purple		sacrifice
silver or white		faith; purity
yellow or gold		honor; loyalty

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