One of our Benchmark Literacy curriculum units is Why Do We Need a Government. Students spent three weeks learning about government workers, our government's laws, and important figures that influenced our country such as: Betsy Ross and General George Washington. To finish our unit, we studied our country’s symbols; including the flag. We learned why our flag has stars, stripes and colors, what the colors mean to our country and the history of why we have our flag. Students used online resources from Grant Wood AEA to research and learn about different state flags. For a culminating project, students spent time thinking of symbols that were important to them and then created their own flag. Student’s then shared their final project with family members at conferences.