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Our Flag Was Still There Activities and Lesson Plans for 2025

Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Our Flag Was Still There will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.

With themes of perseverance, this Our Flag Was Still There picture book by Jessie Hartland is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!

Engage Your Students with Our Flag Was Still There Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:

  1. Read a summary of Our Flag Was Still There. You can find it in the section below.
  2. Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
  3. Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Our Flag Was Still There reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.

OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE SUMMARY

Jessie Hartland’s book, Our Flag Was Still There, is a nonfiction book about the American flag on display at the Smithsonian. During the war in 1813, Major George Armistead wanted to send a message to the British that the land belonged to America. He decided to have a very large American flag made so it could be seen from far away.

Mary Pickersgill was an expert in the flag making business. She and her team of seamstresses took on the challenge of making the giant flag. Six weeks later, the flag was finished, but the British retreated for winter. The flag was hung over the fort in Baltimore anyway, and a year later the British returned. A long battle between American and British ships began and lasted 25 hours!

When the battle was over and America won, the flag was still standing over the fort. An American poet and lawyer, Francis Scott Key, noticed the flag from the British ship where he was being held. He was inspired to write a poem, which eventually became the national anthem.

The flag was in storage for many years before it was donated to the Smithsonian. During this time, it had become worn out and needed to be restored. Eventually, a special exhibit was created to protect the flag and that is where it still is today.

OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE LESSON PLAN IDEAS

Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.

When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Our Flag Was Still There, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.

We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.

READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

The text-based Our Flag Was Still There reading comprehension questions focus on:

  • asking and answering questions
  • author’s purpose
  • cause and effect
  • sequencing
  • summarizing/retelling

LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS

We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:

  • perseverance

GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY

  • pronouns
  • possessive nouns
  • adverbs
  • multiple meaning words

OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE ACTIVITIES

You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:

  • comprehension questions
  • 30 writing prompts with themed paper
  • vocabulary activities
  • word study print & go activities
  • ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
  • social emotional learning discussion topics
  • graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
teacher and her students talking about a picture book
elementary teacher calling on her student to answer a question

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Our Flag Was Still There activities

BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS

What are the reading levels for Our Flag Was Still There?

  • Lexile® Measure: 790L
  • Guided Reading Level: N/A
  • DRA Level: N/A
  • Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 4.2

Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?

The book was written by Jessie Hartland. It was illustrated by Jessie Hartland.

What genre is Our Flag Was Still There?

It is a nonfiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.

How many pages are in the book?

The story is 48 pages long.

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