The National Anthem

I really wanted to spend the next four weeks or so preparing the girls for The Fourth of July.  I feel like Nicole can understand a little better this year what the holiday is about.  So, I decided we would take one national song a week....learn about it, sing it a lot and use it as our "jumping off" point as we prepare for Independence Day.

Last week it was our National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key.  We found out that it was a poem (with a different title) written by Key while he was on a boat asking for his friend, who was being held captive by the British, to be released.  The British captain said he would release the man, but that they had to stay on the boat for several more days because they (Key and his friend) had heard about the coming attack on Fort McHenry and so the captain didn't want to release them and jeopardize the attack.  So, Key and his friend anxiously watched the British attack their beloved country while on the boat.  They determined that as long as they saw the flag flying high, the fort had not been taken.  The battled raged all night, and in the morning, Key looked up and saw the United States flag flying high.  He wrote his poem "The Defence of Fort McHenry".  The poem was quickly published and set to the tune of a drinking song.  It became the national anthem in 1931. 

So, the girls and I sang this song a lot (they've got the basic tune down) and they know the highlights of the story.  Even Hannah knows some of it (when I ask who wrote the song, Hannah says "Scot"  not bad for a 2 year old!)

One day last week, we decided to make a picture of how the song was written.  We used sparkly paper, Popsicle sticks and glitter.

Nicole cut out the boat (and cut off the sail, which  I'm claiming is why it doesn't look like a boat.  But, the REAL reason is because I'm not very artistic, and I didn't know how to draw a boat for her cut out...but don't tell anyone else that!)

Hannah "built" the fort with Popsicle sticks. 

The complete picture.  You see the big flag flying over the fort that Nicole made (by the way, I copied this flag from a bad picture in the book.  I later found out that the flag had 15 stars, not 13...and that they were not in the circular shape, rather in 3 rows of 5).  There are glitter fireworks flying over the fort and ship too.

Next is America the Beautiful.