DLTK's Crafts for Kids
All About the USA Paper Quilt Craft

This is a great cut and paste paper craft project for learning about the USA.  It includes some American animals, symbolic American icons, the American flag and a map of the USA.

This turns out to be quite a large project (about 25 inches x 25 inches) and there are lots of templates to print.

Note:  If you'd like a smaller project (both in size and time) do a 4 square quilt instead of a 9 square quilt:  only print templates 1, 2, 4 and 5

Alternatively, you might like to have a group of children each make a quilt piece or two and then assembling everyone's pieces into one quilt.

Materials:

• paper,
• printer,
• something to color with,
• scissors,
• glue
• Optional:  red or blue construction paper

Notes about the images:

Image 1:  Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812.  During the war, provisions sent to soldiers were inspected and marked with SAM causing the soldiers to begin to affectionately refer to food arrivals as gifts from Uncle Sam.

Image 2:  The rose is the National Floral Emblem of the United States.

Image 3:   "As American as motherhood and apple pie" has been a saying for over a century.  Strangely enough, apples are not native to North America.  British colonists brought them to America.  John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) became an American legend for planting apple orchards.

Image 4:   The Statue of Liberty is a large neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.  The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886 and was a gift to the United States from the people of France.  She represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tablet upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence.  The statue has become an iconic symbol of freedom and of the United States.

Image 5:  The flag of the US consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the top left corner.  The 13 stripes represent the original thirteen colonies that rebelled against the British monarchy and became the first states in the Union.  The 50 white stars on the blue rectangle represent the 50 states that currently make up the country.

Image 6:  The bald eagle is the national bird and the national symbol of the United States.

Image 7:  The Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American Independence, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Image 8:  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic.  It has 50 states and is the world's third largest country by area.  Canada borders it to the north and Mexico to the south.

Image 9:  Baseball is America's national sport.

Instructions:

• Optional:  This is optional, but I really like to include it as part of the craft if I'm making the 9 square quilt.
  • Print the "Top Border Template" in either color or B&W.  This is the bit that says USA along the top.
  • Color the template pieces if using B&W
  • Cut out the template pieces
  • Assemble the pieces to make a strip about 20 inches long and 3 inches tall.
• Print templates 1 to 9 to make a 9 square quilt  
   
  OR print templates 1, 2, 4 and 5 if you're making a 4 square quilt.
• Color each template piece if using B&W
  • this can be quite time consuming and can be done over two weeks of learning about the country (a square per day and 1 day for assembly = 10 days)
        OR
  • this can be done as a group project with each child completing a square and then assembling it as a group.
• Cut out the template pieces.
• Apply glue to the gray parts of the template and assemble (you can look at the image at the top of this page to see what piece goes where)  After assembling, there should be no gray left showing.
• Optional:  I was torn whether to add this as the project is already quite time consuming.  It's up to you whether you want to do it!
  • Glue 4 inch wide strips of red, white or blue construction paper all around the outside of your project to form a border.  Use scissors to cut a slight wave in this border so it looks like a quilt.
     
    OR
  • Print 3 copies of the fringe template for a 9 square quilt or 2 copies for a 4 square quilt.  Cut out the pieces and glue them around the outside of the quilt as a border, overlapping the pieces slightly so there are no gaps.

Templates:

• Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Top Border Template       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 1       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 2       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 3       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 4       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 5       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 6       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 7       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 8       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 9       color  or   B&W

Optional Fringe Template       color  or   B&W

Optional Info About the Images        B&W only

Print friendly version of these instructions