Monday, February 2, 2009

Oh, Say Can You See

Today we read about the War of 1812 and the Star-Spangled Banner (the song and the flag).

The girls were thrilled because they remember when we were at the National Museum of American History in 2006 and SAW the Star-Spangled Banner.  It was still under renovation at that time and we saw it on its rollers in the lab.  Very cool.  They always say, "Is that that big flag we saw that they were sewing on?"

Here are our flag connections for the day:

We were awed to compare the size of the real Star-Spangled Banner to our house.  Our kitchen/dining/living room is 18 x 40 (ish)  The flag is 32 X 40!  Whoa!


Be sure to play the quiz game and collect the 14 stars to earn your certificate on SSB trivia!  We got them all correct.

Last night we were watching a rerun of Antiques Roadshow in Texas and a flag collector there, when asked if there were any flags he did not have that he WOULD like, (he had over 600!!!) said, "the Star-Spangled Banner!"  (can you believe I found the clip!  Is there NOTHING that is not on the internet????)

I sang all three "popular" verses of the SSB to the girls this morning.  (I'll spare you a demonstration) The third verse is little known and seldom sung (but I bet you know verses 1, 2 & 4, don't you!  I hope you at least know verse 1)

Enter a SSB singing contest sponsored by the NMAH on YouTube

Listen to the original English drinking song from which the melody for the SSB was taken!

Check out a rendering of the Star-Spangled Banner by one of my favorite illustrators, Peter Spier.


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