Drinking Straw American Flag Kid Craft

We have a big stash of plastic drinking straws because my children love them. I must like them too, because every time I see a color we don't have I buy them.

We used some of our colored drinking straws to make an easy American flag craft for the 4th of July.

I cut a rectangle from white cardstock and lightly drew another rectangle in the upper left corner. We filled in the rectangle with blue straws. Regular white glue works great.

I cut the straws myself because I wasn't in the mood for picking up thousands of tiny bits of straws off the floor, but they could have cut the straws themselves.

We added red and white straws and finished them off with foil star stickers.

 

My son just wanted the white straws with red stripes.

While my 5 year old pointed out that the blue wasn't authentic enough for his taste, my 3 year old didn't mind getting a little creative with her flag.

If your kids are interested in learning more about the American flag, a great book to read is F is for Flag by Wendy Cheyette Lewison.  Colorful illustrations and simple text show how one flag can mean many things: a symbol of unity, a sign of welcome, and a reminder that-in good times and in bad-everyone in our country is part of one great big family.

You might also like this American flag made from craft sticks: