Current events that children are excited about provide great entry points for playful learning experiences.  The Olympics can provide many educational opportunities for young children.  Some possible themes for exploration are: geography, flags, national anthems, introduction to different cultures, teamwork and the list could go on... In preparation for the Olympic opening ceremonies tonight, we decided to explore flags around the world.

We started by generating a list of the countries that we have personal connections to.  We started with nine countries that either we have been to, or know someone who is from.  Next, we printed out small versions of the flags and using the website listed below as a reference, the girls colored them in.  This experience was great because they had to notice the patterns on the flags and then accurately reproduce them in color.  When they finished their coloring, the girls glued the flags on to black construction paper.  The last step was to put on the labels (I printed them using return address labels) to the corresponding flag.  Affixing the labels was a great exercise in word recognition for my 5 year old and letter recognition for my 3 year old.  Once the cards were complete, we enjoyed numerous games of our newly created “World Flag Memory”.

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Materials & Resources

1. • Flags of the World - Pictures and Maps
   

2. • Flags of the World - Printables
   

3. • World Flags - Video
   

4. • World Flags - Online Game