The Dreadful Bear- A California History Lesson

In many California schools, this is the time of year when an in-depth study of the Golden State is begun. I love this project because of all the cross-curricular connections it has. The story behind the flag is filled with action, adventure, drama and intrigue. If you don't know the story, you should and you can learn more about it and California history at these great links.


The Drawing Lesson
50States
The Bear Flag Revolt at Wikipedia
Raising of the Bear Flag













Once drawn, outline with black marker. The bear is brown, the star red and the grass is green. The claws stay white and some versions of the flag have black footprints in the grass. I had my students color in with marker first in a flat color and then build up texture in different tones and highlights with oil pastel making sure to add more white to the front legs and more black to the back legs. We then wrote CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC on the bottom.This could be done first to plan the space better or the bear and star could be cut out and added to another page with the lettering.
The final step is attach a strip of red paper to the bottom of the flag.