Ice Paint American Flag Craft

This post was contributed by Rhonda of MultiTasking Maven.

An Icy & Fun American Flag Craft!

This Ice Paint American Flag Craft is a super fun multimedia art project and a great alternative to traditional painting. The American Flag is an important symbol of our freedom. Doing an American Flag craft like this one offers a great opportunity to talk about the importance and history of the American flag.  Plus it’s great for learning about lines and shapes, and using sensory materials, too.  Here’s how to do it with your kids…

Ice Paint American Flag Craft

Materials

• Ice Paint (Here is a quick tutorial on how to make Ice Paint!)
• Watercolor Paper (2 sheets)
• Yardstick
• Pencil
• Glue Sponge (Here is a quick tutorial on how to make a Glue Sponge!)
• Scissors

Steps:

1. First, make a  rectangle in the upper right corner.  (We traced a book.)
2. Next, use the width of the yardstick to draw the lines for the stripes.
3. Once you have your flag drawn, I recommend painting with one color first, and then go back and fill in with the other. For example, we started with white stripes and then added the red stripes.
4. After your stripes are painted, use the blue ice paint to fill in the rectangle.
5. Set your flag aside and use another sheet of watercolor paint and paint it white. This piece will be used to cut out the stars for the flag.
6. Once your white paint has dried, flip the paper over and draw stars on the opposite side.  (By flipping the paper over, when you cut out the stars you will not see the pencil marks.)
7. Cut out your stars.
8. Use a glue stick or glue sponge (found here) to glue the stars to the blue rectangle. (I love the glue sponge because it is so easy to glue down all the corners without a lot of glue mess.)
9. Let your American Flag craft dry. (I love the three dimensional effect that cutting and adding the stars gives to this project.)

Ways to Extend Your American Flag Learning:

Facts about the American Flag:

• The American Flag has thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red and white. The first stripe on the flag is red.
• It has a blue rectangle in the upper left corner that represents the ‘Union’ with 50 small white stars.
• There are 50 stars on in the rectangle that represent the 50 states of the United States of America and the 13 original colonies.
• The flag has been called Stars and Stripes”, “Old Glory,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Related Math Vocabulary:

I love combining art with other subjects. This is a perfect opportunity to talk about different lines. Here is a quick list that you can discuss with this great hands on reinforcement.

• Paralell Lines – Lines that go in the same direction.
• Perpendicular Lines – Lines that cross.
• Intersecting Lines – Lines that intersect that form square corners.
• Horizontal Lines – Lines parallel to the ground. The line separating the sky from the water at a beach, horizon line.
• Oblique Lines – Lines that are slanting, not up or down, or left and right.

Basic Shapes You Can Review:

• Circles
• Dots
• Straight Lines
• Angle Lines
• Curved Lines

This American Flag craft combines mixed media, history, and math for a fun and patriotic art project. As with any art project, there is not a right or wrong way.  In fact, when the paint melts free from the craft stick it can become a great sensory experience with the cool paint – a patriotic twist to finger painting!

Rhonda, is the mom behind MultiTaskingMaven.com, a website dedicated to answering the questions that keep you up at night about saving money, homeschooling, with some quick, budget friendly diy projects.  Mom to three boys and one girl, who could run her house if her mom chose to go on strike, Rhonda loves to get away with her family camping, hiking, or on her road bike with her husband.

More American Flag Ideas for Kids:

    

If you like this, get lots more by signing up to get B-Inspired Weekly right in your inbox. And follow B-Inspired Mama on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest!  Also check out these link ups where B-Inspired Mama loves to share and find inspiration!