President's Day

I have fourth graders, but we're reading Grace's Letter to Lincoln to kick off our study of the Presidents. Also, we might give each child a piece of posterboard and ask them to create waist-up pictures of an assigned President. They'll cut arm holes out so that they can hold the board up in front of the class, and a face hole to put their face in. The clothing and background will vary according to their President. On the back, students will list 5 interesting facts about their President.

When my daughter was in first grade, her teacher did a month long study of the Presidents for February. They learned all the Presidents in order using a song -- I believe it was called Song of the Presidents and went through Clinton -- I don't know if they have a new version with the younger Bush or not. Each day they studied a President or two and learned at least one or two facts about each one. For example, George Washington our first President and the Father of our Country. John Adams kept our country out of a war and was a leader in the fight for independence. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and with the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of our country. ETC. Each day the students would repeat the facts learned the day before and learn the new ones. At the end of the unit, she stood the children up and gave them each a president in order. Once she used up all the students she went back and repeated the process. So each child then had approximately three presidents to be -- my daughter was John Adams, Lincoln and Herbert Hoover. On Presidents Day, the students marched into the school chapel to God Bless America (my daughter goes to a private Christian school so you might have to change this up a bit). They then got into their places and led the pledge for the parents. They sang their presidents song, then each child stepped forward and did presented their presidential fact for each president in order -- Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, etc.

It was really cute and informational. My daughter is now going into fifth grade and still can be caught singing/humming the presidents song. She loved becoming a president and John Adams was her fav -- she has since seen 1776 and really laughs about Adams being obnoxious and disliked.

I can't remember all the activities they did but they did do silhouettes of Washington and Lincoln, looked at the Memorial on the back of the penney with a high powered magnifying glass to see the statue of Lincoln, and read a bunch of books.

Some of them are: Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers by Karen WInnick, The President and Mom's Apple Pie by Michael ??? (this is a fairly new one), Amelia and Eleanor go for a Ride, Books by Cheryl Harness -- George Washington, Young Theodore Roosevelt, Young John Quincy Adams, John Adams, and two about Abe Lincoln --, A Christmas Tree in the White House by Gary Hines (Theodore Roosevelt), Abe Lincoln and the Muddy Pig (easy reader), Abe Lincoln's Hat (easy reader), Picture book biographies by David Adler -- several presidents, A Picture Book Biography of George Washington and A Picture Book Biography of Thomas Jefferson by James Cross Giblin, Childhood of Famous American Books about the Presidents.

Hope that helps. Good luck. Those kids absoulutely loved the unit.

I read the book So You Want to be President? We discuss how the president dresses and what he does. We talk about some of the cool things Pres. have put in the White House and the portraits from the W.H. The kids then draw themself as a presidential portrait. On the back they write one good thing they'd try to do for the country and one fun thing.
I also got in the Feb. monthly reproducibles book a presidential sort. There is a picture of G.W. and A.L. and open spaces on their hats. There is a sheet of facts. The kids have to decide which president it fits and glue down the facts.

My "President" theme usually falls around the same time my 2nd graders study money. One of our projects is to examine the famous faces on coins. Then I cut large, white circles and the kids take turns standing in front of the overhead to have their sillouettes (spell?) traced. Then, with their heads outlined on one side, they design a new coin with their own faces on the coins. They pick the value, special phrases, & date = year of their birth, etc. They have fun with this!

I don't know if they are cute necessarily, but I think they will be fun.

I went to Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago so I will show the class some of the pictures, especially the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the White House. I have an overview of the White House(how many rooms, what other amenities are included) and we talk about how it was different when Lincoln lived there and how George Washington was the only president not to live there.

We also have a discussion about what the kids think the president's job is (this can be fun!) and I write their responses for a book the class makes about what they learned about presidents.

Finally, I ask the kids to write a bit about what they would do if they were president and post them in the hall. These, too, can be quite creative. This year we are also going to write to President Bush as a class, and see if we get a response.

I checked out www.whitehouse.gov. There is a kid's link and on it I found kid's bios. Groups of children did biographies on each of the president's. There is some fun information, such as favorite hobbies and favorite foods that I will share with my students.
Hope this helps!