USA! USA! USA! Briarcliff Manor 4th Graders Hold A Flag Day Parade In Honor Of The 50 States

Press release from the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District:

Last week, on Flag Day, the entire fourth grade at Todd Elementary School came together to hold a school-wide parade to commemorate both the day itself and our country’s 50 states.

Prior to the parade, students prepared two types of posters – one for the parade and one for a presentation.

All 100 fourth graders were divided into pairs or groups of three and were assigned a state to research.

“It worked out perfectly to have 100 students, but we didn’t want them to research about New York, because they had already learned about it in class,” said fourth-grade teacher Janet Paquette. “We have two groups of threes, and the rest have been working in pairs.”

Students began by creating posters for presentations they would give to the third graders after the parade.

The posters included information that they researched such as famous places and events, state nicknames, fun facts and renowned residents.

“Using the Apple Classwork app, students had access to everything they need to conduct research for this project,” Ms. Paquette said. “They used websites such as Trueflix, National Geographic Kids and PebbleGo, where they could safely access information and photos. We tried to vary their resources and focused more on paper resources, such as books, in addition to the digital resources, as we wanted to be very mindful of the technology we were using.”

Students also made hand-drawn posters for the parade, which showcased their state’s name, the year it became a state and drawings that represented the state, such as the state bird, flag or flower and landmarks. Some students included their state’s motto.

As they were creating the posters for the parade, students shared what they learned while doing research and which state they would want to visit.

“I learned that the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee are called ‘The Salamander Capital of the World,’ so I’m drawing a salamander,” Jace said. “I would like to visit Tennessee and see them.”

“We are researching Connecticut, and we learned that the lollipop was invented there,” Eden said. “I would want to visit Idaho because it looks really pretty there.”

Mia and Sara researched the state of Ohio.

“We learned that it’s called the ‘Buckeye State’ because of the buckeye tree,” Mia said. “And seven U.S. presidents were born there!”

“We learned that there are more cows than people in Montana!” Ben said.

The parade took place with students marching in the order of the states’ admission into the union, beginning with Delaware and ending with Hawaii, which joined the union in 1959. During the parade, students also wore accessories that signified their state.

“This project is an extension of what we learned earlier in the year – about the American Revolution, New York State and the 13 colonies,” Ms. Paquette said. “We wanted to expand on that, and we discussed the order of how the states joined and why. This is also why we parade in that order.

“This is also a fun way to learn and to practice presentation and research skills. Students got creative with their posters and accessories. The more they learned about their state, the more they grew to appreciate it.”

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This press release was produced by the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.