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Aligns with standards C.2.3.1 and C.2.3.2 for third
grade Social Studies. Created 1/16.
http://www.arkansasheritage.com
Photo by Ken Slade (1)
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What is a symbol? What symbols can you
think of? Why do you think Arkansas has
state symbols?
What is a motto? What mottos can you
think of?
Where have you seen the Arkansas state
flag?
Conversation
symbol
A thing that represents some-
thing else
Vocabulary
native
Person, plant or animal origi-
nally found in a certain place
tribute
An act or statement used to show
respect or being thankful
bushel
A measurement that equals
35.2 liters
navy
A branch of the military who work
on the seas
industry
Hard work or a type of busi-
ness where things are made
Fun fact: Our state motto is regnat popu-las, latin meaning “the people rule.”
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Symbol Song
Craft and game
Cookie cutters in the shape of our state symbols and a memory card game are both available
for classrooms at the Department of Arkansas Heritage’s website.
Arkansas wind chimes
Use a salt-dough recipe to create the shapes of
the Arkansas symbols.
1) Use dough to create 3 Arkansas symbols. Be
sure to include a hole at the top of the
shape.
2) After baking the shape, paint it.
3) Distribute tin pans of Styrofoam plates that
have 3 sets of double-holes punched out and
3 strings of varying lengths.
4) String the symbols to the pan/plate.
Our state tree is the pine Our gem, the diamond, shines Our rock, bauxite, can be mined We are the natural state White-tailed deer is our mammal The instrument is the fiddle Pink tomato, vegetable And fruit. It tastes so great. Bees give us honey Mockingbirds Can sing for hours Apple blossom Is our flower Can’t you see I know my symbols?
To the tune of “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen
Hey! Arkansas is The 25th state Quartz is our mineral And we are awesome! We like to square dance and drink milk Regnat populus, And we are awesome! Hey! First Arkansans
Were Caddos, Quapaws, And also Osage.
Arkansas is awesome! We have six geographic regions
Delta, rivers, mountains And we are awesome!
Can you come up with another verse?
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Arkansas designated apple blossoms as the
state flower in 1901 as a tribute to how im-
portant apples have been to our state. Farm-
ers first started growing apples, mostly in
northwest Arkansas, in 1822. In 1920, the
peak of apple growing in Arkansas, Wash-
ington and Benton counties produced five mil-
lion bushels of apples. Apple growing is de-
clining in Arkansas, but we still are known for
a type of apple grown mostly in Arkansas:
the Arkansas black apple. Maybe you have
tried one before!
In 1929, Arkansas voted to make the
mockingbird the state bird because of how
important the birds were to farmers. Mock-
ingbirds can be found year-round in Arkan-
sas. They may know up to thirty-eight songs
and can sing for many hours at a time. Males
even sing at night, maybe when you are try-
ing to sleep. They are very bold about de-
fending their nest, and have been known to
attack cats and humans who get too close!
The pine tree became the state tree in
1939. Arkansas timber is an important
part of Arkansas’s economy. There
are four species of pine
native to Arkansas, and the loblolly pine is the
more common tree in the whole state. Our trees
go on to make paper, build houses and serve
as homes for many animals.
Diamonds were de-
clared the state gem in
1967. We often think
about diamonds in jewel-
ry, but they are used to
make many important
things, such as tools for surgery, glass-cutting,
drilling and metal-cutting. That is because dia-
monds are the hardest naturally-occurring ma-
terial on earth! Arkansas is one of the few
places in North America where diamonds are
found, and the only place where anyone can
look for them.
Bauxite became the state rock in 1967. Pu-
laski and Saline county are home to bauxite,
which can be used to make aluminum. Alumi-
num is used for transportation, packaging, con-
struction, cooking tools and even toothpaste!
During World War I and World War II, Arkan-
sas had the largest amounts of bauxite mined
in the nation. After the wars, bauxite wasn’t as
needed, and it mostly stopped being mined in
Arkansas by 1982.
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1967 was also the year in which quartz be-
came the state mineral. Quartz is found in the
Ouachita Mountains. Quartz makes up nearly
25% of the earth’s surface, but there are only a
few places where the rock is good enough to be
mined. Arkansas is one of them!
Arkansas declared the honeybee as the state
insect in 1973. While we may think of bees as
being scary, they are important to helping flow-
ers and food grow. In fact, 15 other states call
the honeybee their state insect! Europeans
brought bees to the United
States in the 1600s, and early
Arkansans enjoyed hon-
ey with their food. A
beehive was used on the
territorial and state seal
to symbolize industry. You may have heard the
saying, “busy as a bee,” meaning bees are al-
ways willing to work to better their world, just
like Arkansans.
The fiddle became our state instrument in
1985, and the square dance became our state
dance in 1991. Fiddle playing and square
dancing were important to the culture of early
Arkansas. Square dancing gets its
name from four couples standing in
a square facing each other. A fiddle
often plays music for the
square dance. While square
dancing is not as popular now
as it once was, it is still prac-
ticed around the state. You may recognize
some of the calls, like “swing your partner
round and round” and “do-si-do.”
Also in 1985, milk became the state bever-
age because of how healthy it is and how im-
portant dairy farming is to Arkansas. Milk
farms have always been important in Arkan-
sas. In 1940 there were 439,000 milk cows in
the state! Milk has protein and important vita-
mins, so drink up!
In 1987, Arkansas voted the south Arkan-
sas vine-ripe pink tomato
to be the state fruit and
vegetable. Arkansas set-
tlers were quick to plant
tomatoes when they
moved here. Tomatoes are
mostly grown in southeast Arkansas, and the
majority of farmers in Bradley County chose
to grow pink tomatoes. In the 1960s, Arkan-
sas was even one of the top growers of to-
matoes in the United States. Today it is the
state’s top vegetable crop.
Arkansas declared the white-tailed deer
its state mammal in 1993. Deer were in Ar-
kansas before people; American Indians
used all parts of the deer to survive. In
1916, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commis-
sion (AGFC) began the first deer season, but
in the 1930s the deer were almost all gone.
The AGFC had to buy deer from other states
to increase the numbers. It worked! Today
there are around a million deer in Arkansas,
and having it as our state symbol celebrates
this victory and how important deer are.
Not all of these symbols are unique to Ar-
kansas. For example, Michigan’s state flower
is the apple blossom, and four
other states claim the mocking-
bird as their state bird. But
they do show a little about
what is special about our
state. What other symbols
would you add? (1)
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Label the symbol, then color them.
Coloring guide sheet
__Quartz_____________ is the
_mineral __________________.
_______________________ is the
___________________________.
________________________ is the
____________________________.
________________________ is the
____________________________.
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________________________ is the
____________________________.
________________________ is the
____________________________.
________________________ is the
____________________________.
________________________ is the
____________________________.
________________________ is the
____________________________.
________________________ is the
____________________________.
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In 1910, the U.S. navy began to build a new
boat: the USS Arkansas. It took 3 years to
build. In 1912, when the boat was close to
being finished, a group of ladies in Pine
Bluff, Arkansas, decided the boat should
have three flags: the United States flag, the
U.S. navy flag, and the Arkansas state flag.
There was just one problem. The ladies soon
discovered that Arkansas didn’t have a state
flag!
The ladies worked with the secretary of
state to do a statewide flag contest. 65 peo-
ple sent in designs for the state flag. Some
were crayon drawings. Some were miniature
silk flags. Many of them had apple blossoms
on it, some had outlines of the state on it,
and some had many stars on them. A group
of people judged the flags and decided that
Miss Willie Hocker of Wabbaseka, Arkansas,
had the best design.
Her design is a little different than the flag
we have now, which you can see in the top
picture. What do you notice is different?
Miss Hocker said the red, white, and blue
symbolized we were a part of the United
States of Ameri-
ca. The white dia-
mond symbolized
we were the first
diamond-
producing state.
The 25 stars around the diamond symbolized
we were the 25th state created. The three
stars in the middle symbolized we had belong
to three different countries: France, Spain, and
the United States. The committee asked her to
include the word ARKANSAS in the middle.
She did, and Arkansas had a state flag to put
on the new ship in 1913.
Fun fact: The USS Ar-kansas participated in World War I and World War II.
Ten years later, the state wanted to show
that we were also a part of the confederacy
during the Civil War, so they added one more
blue star on
top to symbol-
ize this. The
design of our
state flag has
flown all
around the
state since
1923. (4)
Photo by Curtis Perry (3)
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Design a flag Design a flag for your classroom. Include at least 4 symbols, such as colors
or shapes. Explain what the symbols are in the box beside the flag.
Symbol Guide
1) ____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
2) ____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
3) ____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
4) _________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Color the Arkansas flag.
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Flag etiquette Salute to the State Flag:
"I Salute the Arkansas Flag With Its Diamond and Stars. We Pledge
Our Loyalty to Thee."
Virginia Belcher Brock
Author
There are many rules about how to display and take care of
the Arkansas State Flag. Here are a few:
1) When the Arkansas flag and the U.S. flag are flown to-
gether, the Arkansas flag should be close to the same size
as the U.S. flag, but never larger.
2) The flag should not touch the ground.
3) The U.S. flag should be flown highest, with the Arkansas
flag below it. If there is more than one flag pole, the Ar-
kansas flag should be to the right of the U.S. flag as you
would normally view it.
Read more at the Secretary of State’s website.
State nicknames Have you ever heard someone call New York City “The Big Apple” or Chicago “The Windy
City?” Sometimes places get nicknames. Arkansas has had several nicknames. What would you
nickname our state?
“The Bear State,” because in the earliest days, Arkansas was known for its bear population.
“The Toothpick State,” because early settlers would carry “Arkansas toothpicks,” or bowie
knives, to eat and hunt.
“Rackensack,” a funny name Arkansans used to show how wild the state was in the 1800s.
“The Wonder State” was officially adopted in 1923, to show Arkansas’s beauty and re-
sources.
“Land of Opportunity,” replaced “Wonder State” in 1943.
“The Natural State,” replaced “Land of Opportunity” in 1995.
Photo by Hunter Desportes. (5, cropped)
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Write it out
Have you ever seen an Arkansas state flag? Where have you seen it? How did it make you
feel? Why do you think it is important to have a state flag?
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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More resources
Sources
1) Slade, Ken. Northern Mockingbird. 2014. Flickr. Web. 05 Dec. 2015 .
2) Ware, David. It's Official!: The Real Stories behind Arkansas's State Symbols. First ed. Little
Rock: Butler Center, 2015. Print.
3) Perry, Curtis. Arkansas Flag. 2002. Flickr. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
4) The Story of the Arkansas Flag. Little Rock, AR: Office of the Secretary of State,
n.d. Secretary of State. Web. 21 Jan. 2016. <http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/educational/
students/documents/the_story_of_the_arkansas_flag.pdf>.
5) Desportes, Hunter. EK000023. 2015. Flickr. Web. 21 Jan. 2016.
Ware, David. It's Official!: The Real Stories behind Arkansas's State Symbols. First ed.
Little Rock: Butler Center, 2015. Print.
Butler Center lesson plan:
http://arstudies.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/lessonplans/id/59/rec/1
N is for Natural State, written by Michael Shoulders, illustrated by Rick Anderson
Arkansas symbols computer game: http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/us-state-
games/arkansas/arkansas-state-symbols.html
Website about all state symbols: http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/states/united-
states/arkansas
Symbol activity: http://diaryofateachaholic.blogspot.com/2013/03/texas-symbols-and-
freebie-yee-haw.html?m=1
Arkansas Crayola coloring sheet: http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-
pages/print/arkansas-coloring-page/
Allison Reavis Education Coordinator [email protected] 501-324-9346 www.arkansasheritage.com
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