When you think of all the things the United States celebrates on the 4th of July independence and freedom are at the heart of it all. So as a fun but still oh so patriotic craft we made these freedom collages. The kids were free to use what they wanted with the only stipulation being that they use red, white and blue. For my kids they do well with fun exciting set ups. The term invitation to play is used in early childhood circles and I often think I set up invitations to create. This was hands off for me other than being a gopher for supplies. While my son created we talked about the revolutionary war ( he is a wee bit obsessed with military history) and while my daughter did I talked a little about what she was doing but really just observed. Here is how we did it.

1. Gather your materials. You can use anything. I asked my son what he wanted me to put out and then I added a few more things. We had paint, a canvas, glue,scissors,  pipe cleaners (love these sparkly ones ) , buttons, paper, plastic lids,  and sticky back foam.
2. Step everything up ready for your patriotic artist.
3. Create. There are so many possible lessons in open art like this let your child direct the creation and the lessons will follow.
4. They both started with paint. And we stumbled upon a lesson in color mixing with my daughter.
5. Fine motor skills got a good work out while they peeled the back off the sticky back foam.
6. Even though my kids did this project separately ( my son and I did it while my daughter was napping and when she woke she wanted to make one too).  There wasn’t much difference other than putting the smaller buttons in the jar and leaving out only the larger ones she won’t try to eat.
7. Let dry and display.

BOOKS

Want some great books about the USA to pair with this activity? Check out these.