Activities to Celebrate National Flag of Canada Day

On February 15, 1965 the Canadian flag, as we know it, was raised for the first time on Parliament Hill, and in 1996, February 15th was declared National Flag of Canada Day.

If you’re looking to get your kids involved in National Flag Day here are six fun and educational Canadian flag-inspired activities:

Dress in Red and White

This is a great way to teach younger children what the colours of our national flag are and is an easy activity for everyone in the family to participate in. You can even break out any old Canada Day shirts you may have.

Create a Trivia Game

The Government of Canada website is a great source for flag facts. Write down some trivia about the flag on index cards and create a game out of it.  Depending on the age of your children you can make the questions as simple as what are the colours of the flag, to what year was the flag created, to what do the colours on the flag symbolize.

Host a "Fold a Flag" Contest

Although I still cannot properly fold a flag, there are many demonstrations online and this could be a fun challenge for kids of all ages. From how many folds does it take to properly fold a flag to who can fold it properly the fastest, this activity is a great way to learn the proper protocol for handling and folding the national flag.

Make Your Own Flag

From construction paper to felt, there are many ways to create your very own Canadian Flag. And you only need red and white! Break out the paints, pompoms, clay or Play Doh–whatever red and white crafty materials you may have on hand.

Bake an Edible Flag Cake

Bake a vanilla cake in a rectangular-shaped baking pan. Cover completely with white icing, and then add strawberries or raspberries for the sides and maple leaf. This dessert is super fun to create together and a delicious way to teach the shapes that make up the the Canadian flag.

Count Flags

Take a walk or drive around the city or neighbourhood. While out and about, ask the children to count as many Canadian flags as they can—you can find them on schools, businesses, city, provincial and national buildings, etc. The kids will be excited when they spot the Canadian flag and you can even use this opportunity to teach them about provincial flags and other national flags.

Do you celebrate National Flag day with any educational and fun activities? If you have one to add to our list, leave a comment and let us know.

Celebrate Canada Day with a Flag Cake

by Alison One of our favourite Canada Day traditions is our Canadian Flag Cake. It’s really quite simple, but a big hit. All you’ll need is a 9X13 rectangular cake pan, your favourite cake recipe (even one from a mix), white icing to cover the full cake, red sprinkles and a maple leaf template.

Once you’ve baked and cooled the cake, cover it completely in white icing. The proper dimensions of the Canadian Flag can be found here but for the simplicity of the cake, I roughly divide into 4 parts. The middle two parts stay white (for now) and then my daughter covers the end quarters with red sprinkles. To make sure the sprinkles spread somewhat evenly, I cover the sprinkle jar with aluminum foil and poke holes in the foil.

Place your maple leaf stencil over the middle half of the cake, and cover with sprinkles. We make a stencil by printing a picture of a maple leaf, covering the paper in packing tape and cutting out the leaf with an exacto knife. This prevents the paper from picking up all the icing, and we can usually reuse a stencil for two or three years (after it’s been wiped down).

Happy Canada Day! We'll be enjoying our cake in Seattle this year.

Alison is the mom of two wonderful kids, 6 and 2. She’s recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest but considers Ottawa home. She blogs at Ali’s Adventures.

Flash back : Canada Day craft

We have so many great posts that have gone up that are still relevant so we're bringing some back from time to time. Here's a great Canada Day craft from Sara. by Sara

Now that my four-year old is done preschool for the year I am in craft-planning mode.  I work from home, which means there is a 2 hour window every afternoon that I need to fill when I work and he needs to be kept busy.

We like to decorate our house for all of the holidays and celebrations so our craft yesterday was a Canada flag.  I chose it because aside from sketching out the side bars and his hand (as the maple leaf) it required minimal mom intervention.  We used red paint but it can also be done with crayons, markers, or finger paint, for the younger kids.

1.  Outline the Canada flag on a large piece of white paper.  The outline of a hand makes a great maple leaf!

2.  Cover your table or art space, especially if its new (like our table) and you don’t want red paint everywhere (which I don’t).  Our dining room table is still wearing its badge of green honour from our St. Patrick’s day craft.

3.  Fill in the red spaces with paint, glitter glue, tissue paper, markers, crayons, red stickers, red feathers, or construction paper.

4.  Hang in a place of prominence for all to admire.

Happy Canada Day!

Sara is mom to a 4-year-old firefighter and 2-year-old monkey.  You can find her at her blog, My Points of View