Jessica De Simone

EDUC555: Social Studies and Teaching Methods P-4

Grade: 3rd Grade
K What do we KNOW?
1. The national symbols of the United
States are: the Statue of Liberty, the Bald
Eagle, the American flag, and the Liberty
Bell.

W What do we WANT to know?

Why is the bald Eagle our national bird?
Why do they call him bald? How did he
get his name? What does the Bald Eagle
represent or mean to us as Americans?

2. Betsy Ross sewed the first American

Flag.

How long did it take for Betsy Ross to sew

the American Flag?

L What did we LEARN?

The students were allowed computer lab
time to work in groups to research the
answers to their questions about the Bald
Eagle. One student worked as the
researcher; one student worked as the
recorder to write down the information
found; one student came up with ideas to
creatively represent the bald eagle to hang
in the classroom. They worked in their
groups to create an artistic representation,
which they presented to the class along
with their findings about the bald eagle.
Each group had to come up with at least 10
interesting facts to present with their piece
of art.
We sewed our own flags using whole
punched paper print outs of the American
flag while the star spangled banner played
softly in the background. The students
used pieces of yarn to wind in and out of
each hole to see how difficult it might have
been for Betsy Ross. I reminded the
students that Mrs. Ross had to cut out each
individual star (only 13 at that time) and
each individual stripe in addition to sewing
each individual part together. The students
gained an understanding and agreed that
the flag must have taken her quite some

3. The American Flag has 13 stripes and 50 What do the 13 stripes and 50 stars
stars.
represent?
What do the colors (red, white and blue)
of the flag represent?

time to construct, since there is no exact

information as to how long it actually took.
We watched a video titled A Cartoon
Narration of the American Flag written by
Nisha Alex, Molly Dwyer and Amy
ONeal found on YouTube. This video
quickly explained what the stars and
stripes represent on the flag.
The students used their flags that they
sewed together during a separate activity
to label what the stars and stripes
represent.
I led a discussion about how colors can
represent different things to different
people. I asked the class to close their
eyes and imagine different colors. I asked
them to keep their eyes closed as they
raised their hands and tell me what each
color meant to them. I asked them to think
about how the color made them feel and
what it reminded them of. I wrote each
color on the board using colored chalk and
we talked about what each color could
mean as a group. The students came up
with their own ideas and answers to what
they thought the colors represented. I
wrote six different colors on the board and
what most interpret those colors to mean. I
had the students match the meanings to the
words and then tell me how they would
relate the red, white, and blue to the United

States.

4. The American Flag did not always look

like it does today. It has changed over
time.

How has the flag changed over the years

and what did it look like before?

I told a story about my favorite color and

why it was my favorite. I told them that
my favorite color was green and that it
reminded me of my childhood and easy
carefree days in much greater detail. I had
the students complete a writing activity
where they wrote about their favorite color
and what it meant to them. Students who
finished early were allowed to color their
previously sewn and labeled flags. These
were hung around the room to remind the
students of what they had learned about
one of our nations most important
symbols.
I drew a very large representation of the
original American Flag with thirteen stars
and thirteen stripes on the board. I asked
the students to remember what the stars
and stripes represent. We wrote a list of
facts that we already knew about the
current American Flag. We used this
information to explore why there were
only thirteen stars when the flag was first
designed. I asked the students to draw in
their notebooks what the flag may have
looked like at different times as more
states were added. Then I asked them to
work in small collaborative groups to
create a time line representing what our
flag looked like when there were 13 stars
in 1776, 23 stars in 1821, 35 stars in 1864,

5. The Liberty Bell is broken. It has a very

large crack down the body of the bell.

Why is the Liberty Bell cracked? Does it

still ring?

6. The Liberty Bell has something written

on it.

What is written on the Liberty Bell?

48 stars in 1913, and our current 50 star

flag. During the activity, I asked them to
focus on the design and organization of the
stars to keep them neat and aesthetically
pleasing. I asked them if they thought the
stripes ever changed during the activity. If
so, why?
This information was recorded on a
graphic organizer while the students
listened to the read aloud of The Liberty
Bell. (Activity listed in row 6)
I read The Liberty Bell by Lloyd G.
Douglas, which contains information about
this iconic symbol of American
independence like where it came from,
what it represents, how it became cracked,
how they tried to fix it, and how it cracked
again! Students learned what is written on
the Liberty Bell and its significance by
listening to the story and completing a
teacher designed graphic organizer. The
words Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all
the land unto all the inhabitants thereof
are on the bell along with the names of the
two men from Philadelphia who re-casted
the bell after it cracked the first time.
After the story, we reviewed what the
Liberty Bell represents, these things are
freedom, liberty, hope and so on and
discussed what was written on the bell and
what they thought it meant. I asked the
students if they thought soldiers overseas
would know the Liberty Bell as a symbol.

7. The Statue of Liberty is a statue of a

woman and she is green.

Why is the Statue of Liberty green?

8. The Statue of Liberty is located in New

York City in the harbor.

How did the Statue of Liberty get to New

York? Where did it come from?

I asked them to either draw, trace or color

handouts of the Liberty Bell and write
what the bell means to them on the back. I
contacted our local representative and he
directed me on how to send the finished
products to troops overseas. We then had a
class discussion about how receiving these
symbols would make the troops feel as
well as how they felt sending them.
The students learned that the Statue is
made out of copper by reading a book
titled The Statue of Liberty by Mary
Firestone. This book is geared towards 6-9
year old readers and presents information
about the original color, where it came
from and why, and what it represents.
They made predictions as to why they
thought the statue turned color and then
performed a science experiment using
pennies and vinegar (to speed up the
process) to show how a chemical reaction
occurred due to the water and copper
meeting.
The students made predictions as to how to
move something that was so large from
France to New York (which was discussed
in the book). I wrote all of the volunteered
answers on chart paper and we circled the
ones that we thought were most likely the
answer. I presented them with a large
structure made out of boxes, which
resembled a robot. I made sure to make
the structure very heavy by places a

weighted object at the bottom. The

structure was taped together. I had the
students use the answers they had come up
with to move the structure from one side of
the room to the other. They realized that
taking the structure apart into smaller
pieces helped them to move it across the
room, which is how the Statue of Liberty
was transported.

9. The Statue of Liberty carries a torch,

wears a spiked headband and carries a
tablet.

Why does she wear the headband and what

does it mean? Does the torch or tablet
mean anything? Is anything written on the
tablet?

During the read aloud of the book titled

The Statue of Liberty by Mary Firestone,
the students each had a copy of a teacher
designed graphic organizer to help them
answer some of these questions. As the
students listened to the story they filled in
their answers. The answers were talked
about during a whole class discussion
where students provided their answers and
any other information they remembered
and/or found interesting. If students
missed any answers during the read aloud,
they were allowed to fill in the answers
during this time.
After listening to the book The Statue of
Liberty, the students had already gathered
information about these answers. I
separated the class into three different
groups with each group being responsible
for teaching the other groups about one of
the statues accessories (the crown, the
torch, or the tablet). Each group had
access to the computer lab with a list of

10.You can climb steps to reach the top of

the statue.

How long would it take you to reach the

top of the Statue of Liberty?

References
Firestone, M. (2006). The Statue of Liberty. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press
Lloyd, G. D. (2003). The Liberty Bell. Jefferson City, MO: Scholastic Library Publishing

resources and websites they could use to

research more information about their
given accessory. Each group was
responsible for explaining the significance
of their accessory in their own words and
how this was important to the overall
symbolism of the statue. Each student
completed a four square explaining the
significance of the Statue of Liberty and
each accessory she wears.
The students gathered information about
how many steps the Statue contains to
reach the crown of Lady Liberty through
the read aloud of The Statue of Liberty. I
had them do an activity where they split
into pairs. One student was appointed the
climber and the other the timer. Each
student labeled the timer was given a
stopwatch to determine how long it took
for their partner to climb two flights of
stairs (in the stairway), equal to about 30
steps. They used this information to help
them come up with a mathematical
equation to determine how long it would
take to climb 354 steps. I provided the
necessary scaffolding and guidance during
this lesson.