Star Spangled Banner Centers

Each year Third Graders learn about the "Star Spangled Banner".  They learn about its history, the lyrics and the music.  One of the fun parts of this unit is going deeper by working at workstations or centers.

At this station students are using a hot dot worksheet and hot dot pens to answer questions about the history of our national anthem.  The pen tells them (with musical sounds!) if their answer if right or wrong.

At this workstation, students read the history of the "Star Spangled Banner" and then quiz their partner on important facts.

Some of the words in our national anthem are a bit difficult to understand in third grade.  At this workstation students learn words like "rampart", "perilous" and "gallantly".

How many words can YOU create using the letters in the title of our national anthem?  At this stop, students race against each other to create words by rearranging the letters in "Star Spangled Banner".

This station is called "Sing in the Blanks".  Students are given a copy of the lyrics to the "Star Spangled Banner" that has many blanks in it.  Working with their partner (who has the answer sheet) students try to sing all the way through the first verse.  It's much harder than it looks, but third graders did a great job!

On your mark!  Get set!  Write!  At this station students work on memorizing the first verse of our national anthem by racing to copy the lyrics.  There's lots of humming and singing going on.  Many students find it easier to remember the words as they relate to the melody of the song.

Francis Scott Key wrote a poem called "The Defense of Fort McHenry".  This poem later was set to a popular tune of the day and eventually became our national anthem.  Writing poems about America can be fun!  At this station, students are inspired by pictures and a collage of patriotic words.  Then they write their own poem about America.

Who was Francis Scott Key? Was he a musician? How on earth did he happen to be stuck on an enemy ship during a battle? At this center, students read together and learn about the composer of the "Star Spangled Banner".

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