Miss Taylor’s Class Learns About Kentucky’s Flag

Author: Kelli Smith

Miss Taylor’s fourth grade class has been learning about Kentucky.

Today when they entered their classroom they noticed the Kentucky state flag at the front of the classroom.

As they all came in and found their seats, Miss Taylor walked to the front of the classroom. “Okay, I would like for all of you to spend a few minutes looking at Kentucky’s state flag,” said Miss Taylor.

All of the students turned to view the flag. A few students jotted down some notes.

“Okay,” said Miss Taylor, “what do you notice about this flag?” Gabrielle raised her hand and Miss Taylor called on her.

Gabrielle said, “Well I see that there is goldenrod on the flag and we learned the other day that goldenrod is the state flower.” “That’s right,” said Miss Taylor, “What else do you see?”

She pointed at Sara who said, “I see two men and the words United we stand, divided we fall.”

“So what do you think that means,” asked Miss Taylor. Jason raised his hand and Miss Taylor called on him. Jason said, “I think that it means we can accomplish more if we work together.” Miss Taylor smiled and said, “that’s right, the two people are a pioneer and a statesman and they represent all of the people. Their embrace is them acting out Kentucky’s motto of united we stand, divided we fall.” Miss Taylor looked back at the flag and said, “so is there anything else that anyone notices?”

Miss Taylor called on Alice who had her hand raised. Alice said, “the flag is blue, and there are the words Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

“Good,” said Miss Taylor, “Now let’s all look at the flag again.” “Kentucky’s official state flag was adopted in 1918 and then changed in 1962. The Kentucky flag law says that the flag should be navy blue with the seal of the Commonwealth which is encircled by a wreath of goldenrod on the lower half and the words Commonwealth of Kentucky on the upper half.”

“Does anyone have any questions,” asked Miss Taylor. Jason raised his hand and Miss Taylor called on him. “Do each of the cities or counties in the state have a flag,” asked Jason. “A few of them do, but not all of them,” said Miss Taylor. “Well, I think it would be neat if each county had a flag. Maybe we could come up with an idea for a flag for our county,” said Jason.

“Okay,” said Miss Taylor, “Who thinks that each county should have its own flag?” All of the students raised their hands. “Alright,” said Miss Taylor, “I want each of you to design a county flag and I want you to write about the choices you make when designing your flag. When they are all finished we will vote on which one we think is best and present the idea to the town council.”

A couple of weeks later, the students presented their designs to the class. Once all of the presentations were complete they voted for Bobby’s design.

As Bobby presented his design to the town council he talked about his choices. He said that he thought that the flag should be representative of the state flag so he chose for it to be navy blue. Then he added a white banner with the words Washington County in navy blue. He said he wanted to keep it simple and since Washington County was the first county formed after Kentucky became a state, he added one star on the flag. The town council applauded his work and said that they would look into making it official. Bobby was so proud.