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The Chinese flag raised at a 2016 Rio Olympics medal ceremony had a major design flaw: the four small stars were aligned parallel to each other rather than rotated towards the larger star. Classrooms all around the world are learning more about flags to better understand the countries, values, and movements they represent. As a result, students develop international mindedness, empathy, and respect. We’re excited to celebrate 12 PenPals of the Week who recently completed Flags of the World: Faith from the United States, Julia, Keira, Soleil, Summer, Alana, and Catherine from Canada, Ahmed and Hezha from Iraq, and Akshara, Auritro, and Amrutha from India.  These PenPals discussed why flags are used and how they are designed. In the process, they learned more about the core values that many countries hold and made their own flags to represent themselves and their communities. Faith R from the United States did a great job of explaining the symbolism behind her state and national flag to her fellow PenPals.  “In the Ohio flag, the large blue triangle represents Ohio's hills and valleys, and the stripes represent roads and waterways. The 13 stars grouped about the circle represent the original states of the union. The 4 stars added to the peak of the triangle symbolize that Ohio was the 17th state admitted to the union.” - Faith R from United States  “But there is also the United States flag, which means many things as well. The white pales (the vertical stripes) signify purity and innocence, red pales signify hardiness & valour, and blue, the color of the chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.” - Faith R from United States PenPals designed beautiful flags using colors and shapes that reflect their individual personalities and what their communities are like.  “My flag represents my friends and I. The first S is for my friend Shayla and the A is for myself. The second S is for my friend Summer and the H is for my friend Hannah. The four circles represent us. The hoop represents how close we are to each other and how we never leave each other in the dumps. The green background is for how calm Shayla is and the yellow is for me and how lucky I am to have them. The pink is for how generous Summer is and the purple and blue is for Hannah and how she is almost always happy.” - Alana C from Canada  “The four colors in the corner represent the four seasons in Canada. Winter used the colour blue to represent the snow, spring the color pink to represent the warmth, summer I used yellow to represent the heat, and orange for fall because of the falling leaves. The pancake represents the maple syrup that come from the tree and the bacon represents Canada's love of bacon!” - Catherine C from Canada Other PenPals designed flags that represent universal values and passions that people from all over can relate to.  “My wish is when I grow up, I can travel all over the world and explore new places. So, I tried to represent the same thing on my flag design. My flag shows travelling around the world to explore new things and places.” -Auritro N from India  “Blue is my favorite color, pink is different, and purple is cool. My flag means you can be an artist. I’m not that good at drawing, but if I practice I’m sure I will get good and you too.” - Keira L from Canada  “Black represents determination, blue represents the sky, purple represents sharks and jellyfish, and red represents Canada. The diamonds represent all of the seasons and the hearts represent love.” - Julia M from Canada Some PenPals used more detailed images and symbols to celebrate and memorialize things they love.  “My flag represents all of the beautiful, wonderful colours in the world. The rainbow unicorn represents all of the weird, colourful, mysterious things. The pencil crayons are to show how much love there is in the world. The wolf, for the graceful, but vicious creatures. The hummingbird represents how fast life flies by. Finally, the deer is for everything wise on the earth.” - Soleil H from Canada  ”My flag represents how sports can bring people together like the Olympics. The white represents ice and snow and the symbols in the bottom left are things you use for sports. Baseball bat, hockey stick, and a golf club.” - Harrison H from Canada  “I made my flag about cats and candy. I picked the color purple for the background because I wanted to remember my hamster that used to be a grey like purple and died last year.” - Summer N from Canada Flags are often used to identify groups of people, but can also promote specific causes or movements ranging from animal protection to world peace.  “The green color represents nature and the brown color represents that animals and mountains are also brown color. We all must protect the animals because nature will be more beautiful with animals.” - Ahmed O from Iraq  “These days girls are not having safety and people to support them. This flag indicates all about girl child being supported. When a girl is born, it’s pride for parents having so much further in life. This flag says save girl child, take care more for girls.” - Akshara P from India  “My favourite part of the PenPal exchange was designing my own flag. It was very interesting and fun. My flag is all about save the earth and stay united also do not pollute it.” - Amrutha H from India  The color white means peace in various cultures and contexts. I use the peace sign to mean success and peace. Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, and truth.” - Hezha O from Iraq Hezha and Ahmed’s teacher told us that Flags of the World helped her students feel more included in the global community. “[This project] is such a nice thing for these students because they are all the way in Iraq, and you know with the constant proxy wars, sometimes students don't see hope. However, little projects like these help them to feel positive and to be part of the world.” Faith also reflected on how discussing flag designs taught her a lot about where other people come from. “When we exchange information with each other I learn more and I teach more at the same time. It is like being a student and teacher at the same time. I love learning about where other people live and hope to learn more about their home.” An appreciation for flags leads to an understanding of a country’s culture or a movement’s purpose. Designing original flags is a great way for students to summarize what matters most to them in a visual, memorable way.
Want to see what’s your students stand for? Enroll your class in Flags of the World, starting April 23rd.
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