American Flag Coloring Pages

• Flat flag: the full flag laid out straight, best for counting stripes and stars
• Waving flag on a pole: the same flag rippling in the wind over a school or a porch
• Stars close-up: the blue corner enlarged, with the nine rows of stars easy to see
• Hand-held flags: small flags on sticks for parades and classroom displays
• Flag shapes: the stars and stripes inside a heart, a star or a map of the country
• The first flag: the 1777 design with thirteen stars
• Flag scenes: a flag-raising at school, the flag on the moon and a color guard

The flag has 13 stripes: seven red and six white. They alternate, with red at both the top and the bottom. The stripes stand for the thirteen original colonies. The blue rectangle in the upper left is called the union or canton. It holds 50 white stars, one for each state, set in nine rows that alternate six stars and five stars. The blue field is as tall as the top seven stripes.

To color it, start with the blue so you can work carefully around the stars and leave them white. Then color the first, third, fifth and every other odd stripe red. The current fifty-star design has flown since July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became the fiftieth state. Flag Day is June 14, the date the first stars and stripes design was adopted in 1777.

• Count and color: have students number the stripes 1 to 13 before coloring so the pattern comes out right.
• Symbols unit: pair the flat flag with a short lesson on what the stars and stripes stand for.
• State count: write one state name beside each star over a week.
• Thank-you cards: color a small flag on a card for a veteran or service member on Veterans Day.
• Flag manners: talk about the custom that the flag shouldn't touch the ground, then hang the finished pages up high.