OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE activities and lesson plan ideas

Save yourself time and engage your students with these Our Flag Was Still There activities. This jam-packed book companion is quick and easy to use - Just print and go!

Read on to learn more about all that is included in this standards-based interactive read aloud packet based on the children’s book, Our Flag Was Still There by Jessie Hartland.

TO SAVE YOU TIME, WE'VE DONE ALL OF THE WORK FOR YOU!

1. We chose vocabulary words & kid-friendly definitions.
2. We selected mentor sentences & specific grammar skills for each.
3. We wrote 30 book-based writing prompts (that cover 10 genres of writing).
4. We identified an SEL focus / character education topic based on events in the story.
5. We constructed strategy-based reading comprehension questions and created no-prep, print-and-go reader response worksheets.

YOU ONLY NEED TO DO 3 QUICK & EASY STEPS:

STEP 1: PLAN

Simply customize your Our Flag Was Still There lesson plans using the ideas in the teaching guide and choose from the 15 standards-based activities.

STEP 2: PREP

Prep can be as simple as printing the activity pages (or assigning the included digital version) and finding a free video of the book being read aloud online.

OPTIONAL: If you want to dive deeper into a book study, you’ll find our teaching ideas and slides make it easy to create mini-lessons, anchor charts, and slideshows.

STEP 3: TEACH

Engage your students with an interactive read aloud by reading or streaming the picture book. Practice reading comprehension strategies with text-based discussion questions. We even wrote the Our Flag Was Still There comprehension questions for you!

Some teachers like to assemble and assign independent work packets. Others prefer to dive deeper into the story with vocabulary, grammar, SEL, and writing lessons that can span over several days.

The best thing about our 500+ book companions is the flexibility they provide you. We’ve packed them with a variety of teaching ideas and activities so you have the option to use them in the way that works best for you and your students! 

THE OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE BOOK COMPANION FOCUSES ON:

◼️READING SKILLS

☐ ASK AND ANSWERING QUESTIONS

☐ AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

☐ CAUSE AND EFFECT

☐ SEQUENCING

☐ SUMMARIZING / RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR

☐ PRONOUNS

☐ POSSESSIVE NOUNS

☐ ADVERBS

☐ MULTIPLE MEANING WORDS

◼️SEL

☐ PERSEVERANCE

OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE SUMMARY

Jessie Hartland’s book, Our Flag Was Still There, is a nonfiction book about the American flag on display at the Smithsonian. During the war in 1813, Major George Armistead wanted to send a message to the British that the land belonged to America. He decided to have a very large American flag made so it could be seen from far away. 

Mary Pickersgill was an expert in the flag making business. She and her team of seamstresses took on the challenge of making the giant flag. Six weeks later, the flag was finished, but the British retreated for winter. The flag was hung over the fort in Baltimore anyway, and a year later the British returned. A long battle between American and British ships began and lasted 25 hours! 

When the battle was over and America won, the flag was still standing over the fort. An American poet and lawyer, Francis Scott Key, noticed the flag from the British ship where he was being held. He was inspired to write a poem, which eventually became the national anthem. 

The flag was in storage for many years before it was donated to the Smithsonian. During this time, it had become worn out and needed to be restored. Eventually, a special exhibit was created to protect the flag and that is where it still is today.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables