Easy Hands-On Activities for Teaching US Symbols

One of my favorite second-grade social studies topics each year is U.S. Symbols. In second grade, students learn about nationalism, patriotism, and customs. If you are teaching US Symbols, here are some hands-on activities for patriotism, nationalism, and U.S. customs in 2nd-grade social studies.

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U.S. Symbols Activities

The worksheet activities are available in my U.S. Symbols Activities Unit. You can also grab the Google activities in my digital pack here.

Introduce Important Vocabulary

Where to start when teaching US Symbols? Introduce your students to the different U.S symbols by first focusing on important words that may come up during the unit. Some words may be; symbol, value, patriotic, freedom, national, and inventiveness. These are all words that my state wants students to be familiar with.

Ask students, “What do you know about the words, and where have you heard them before?”. One fun way to use these vocab cards is by placing them around the room and having students copy the definitions.

Make Fun Anchor Charts

One of my favorite ways to teach students about a new topic is to make anchor charts with my class. Try picking a few important symbols you want your class to know about. Write them down on a large anchor chart pad with fun facts and pictures for students to refer to throughout the week.

Need more anchor chart ideas! Check out the complete unit HERE!

Teaching US Symbols with Digital Slides

A fun activity idea for teaching US Symbols is by showing students a small slideshow using Google Slides. This activity is great as an independent, distance learning, or group work activity.

While your students review the different symbols, they can draw pictures and take notes in a social studies journal or a piece of paper.

Teaching US Symbols with Reading Passages

us symbols distance learning reading passages

Another fun digital activity the students can do independently, is read and collect facts about each symbol with digital reading passages. These are fun passages that you can read out loud and have students discuss/collect facts about the different symbols.

Each reading passage is packed with lots of information. They make a great early finisher assignment or can be assigned as a group project.

Record Facts about U.S. Symbols Worksheets

Throughout the unit, I like to give students a simple worksheet like the one pictured when teaching US Symbols. I have students keep it in their social studies folder or a notebook.

As they learn about the different symbols they can collect facts and record what they have learned. At the end of the unit, I make sure each student’s facts are correct and they share with their friends.

Sing the National Anthem

teaching US Symbols with the National Anthem

In addition to teaching US Symbols, I have my students listen to the National Anthem. We talk about its history and its meaning. The students enjoy listening to it and singing along. It is a great way to discuss patriotism and nationalism with the kids.

Recite the Pledge of Allegiance when teaching US Symbols

2nd grade pledge of allegiance worksheet

After the kids have had a fun week learning about symbols, I go over The Pledge of Allegiance with them. Every morning our school has announcements and we say the pledge together, but some of the words in the pledge are hard for students to understand.

A quick activity I like to do is have students read one line at a time from the pledge and discuss what they picture in their mind as they read. This is a great way to visualize some hard concepts for the kids. At our carpet, we talk about the pledge and what it means. Then, the students and I draw pictures of what we see in our minds.

Write about U.S. Symbols and Patriotism

At the end of our week, I have my class complete a few writing prompts and a quiz about U.S. Symbols. The students enjoy learning about the different U.S. Symbols throughout the week. This is a fun unit to teach, and the activities from my U.S. Symbols Activities pack are quick and easy to complete.

U.S. Symbols Activity Packs

I hope you have found some ideas you can use as you plan for teaching US Symbols in your classroom. All of the activities in this post, plus the digital versions are part of this U.S. Symbols Worksheet and Digital Activities Bundle.