This week in Homeschool Charlie and I will be studying National Anthem Day which is March 3rd. The National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner which is written by Francis Scott Key.
Did you know he wrote the lyrics on September 14, 1814, during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. I would like to let you know the original name of the song was “Defence of Fort McHenry”.
There has been many patriotic songs, but The Star Spangled Banner became one which stuck to Americans, gaining popularity over the years.
For the longest time, America didn’t have an official national anthem. Did you know that? Then a 100 years later, that The Star Spangled Banner became our national anthem.
When March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution making “The Star Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the US.
Charlie and I will be learning the Star Spangled Banner and signing it for his grandparents this evening.
Additional Resources:
Music and Poetry: Free Music Lesson on “The Star-Spangled Banner”
Star-Spangled Banner Lesson Plan
Words to the Star Spangled Banner
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d homes and the war’s desolation;
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
