Over the years, I have amassed enough material to teach about our Presidents ALL year long. To make it more palatable to those of you who only want to study Presidents for one week, here are some suggestions.
And if you do want more, I have more book suggestions at the end. And please know that this list isn't exhaustive, it's just a sampling. A quick search on the Internet, and you too, can have as many books as me!
One year we did a George Washington unit study field trip while we were visiting back east. We started at Valley Forge and moved on down to Mount Vernon. I don't remember how old the five of them were. I just remember the two eldest asking the docents at Mount Vernon about other aspects of George Washington's life, and the docents only knew about his life at Mount Vernon. They were pretty disappointed that they didn't get their questions answered, but I had the sense of pride knowing that they probably knew more about George Washington's life than the docents did!
Anyway, here is a sampler for teaching 5 hours worth of Presidents. And the reason I picked these Presidents is because 4 of them were born in February and John F. Kennedy because he is on so much of our money. He is one that our elementary age children can see repeatedly. As I tried to upload it, a lot of my formatting didn't come out. If you want my "worksheets", just leave your email address.
President’s Day Unit Study
1 hour study for 5 days + Family Movie Night ideas
Additional resources for the month
Day 1 – Monday – George Washington
Go to the
website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/georgewashington
- read about George Washington
Read 10
Rules from George Washington’s Rules of
Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation
Read: George
Washington, Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
Write facts
about George Washington using the quarter page
Practice
this phrase about George Washington – “First in war, first in peace, and first
in the hearts of his countrymen…”
For dinner
have pancakes (hoe cakes)
Family time
movie: George Washington’s Home Town, by Miss Betty’s American History
Tours – 50 minutes
Day 2 – Tuesday - William Henry Harrison
Go to the
website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/williamhenryharrison
- read about William Henry Harrison
Read William Henry Harrison: Young Tippecanoe
Craft: How to
Draw the Life and Times of William Henry Harrison
Learn this
quote:
“I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most
free.”
Count out
M&M’s – one for everyday he was President
Day 3 – Wednesday – Abraham Lincoln
Go to the
website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/abrahamlincoln
- read about Abraham Lincoln
Read Abraham
Lincoln, Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
Visit this
website: http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/sites/birth.htm
Copy the
Gettysburg Address on the penny page.
Put a piece of paper with lines behind the penny page, to allow your
student to draw on the line. Only have
them copy what they are able to read.
The first sentence is enough.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers
brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great
civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We
have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we
cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above
our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead
we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham
Lincoln
November 19, 1863
November 19, 1863
For snack, make a log cabin out of pretzels, using Cheese Whiz as
mortar.
For movie
night watch: You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, by Charles Schulze – 30 minutes
Day 4 – Thursday
– John F. Kennedy
Go to the
website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/johnfkennedy
- read about John F. Kennedy
Read A Picture Book of John F. Kennedy
Learn this
quote: “And so, my fellow Americans:
ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your
country.”
Write facts
about John F. Kennedy using the quarter page
Day 5 – Friday – Ronald Reagan
Go to the
website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ronaldreagan
- read about Ronald Reagan
Read The
Remarkable Ronald Reagan: Cowboy and
Commander in Chief
Watch this
Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSu5TTKGcJw
Write some
of these favorite quotes:
1. A people free to choose will always choose
peace.
2. Above
all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the
world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It
is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.
3. Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s
the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
4. Freedom
is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to
our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed
on for them to do the same.
Family movie
night: pick a Ronald Reagan flick! Some of my favorites: Knute
Rockne All American, Bedtime for Bonzo, The Santa Fe Trail
Eat Jelly
Bellys for dessert!
For more in depth study, try some of these
other resources (*required for this unit study):
Books:
George Washington’s World, by Genevieve
Foster
Abraham Lincoln’s World, by Genevieve
Foster
First in their Hearts, A biography of George
Washington, by Thomas Fleming
*George Washington, Ingri & Edgar
Parin D’Aulaire
*Abraham Lincoln, Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
*Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in
Company and Conversation, by George Washington
Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary
Leader, by Dinesh D’Souza
When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan, by Peggy Noonan
*The Remarkable Ronald Reagan: Cowboy and Commander in Chief, by Susan
Allen
*How to Draw the Life and Times of William
Henry Harrison, by Hilary Barton Billman
*William Henry Harrison: Young Tippecanoe, by Howard S. Peckham
*A Picture Book of John F. Kennedy, by
David A. Adler
Movies (appropriate for elementary age)
*You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, by
Charles Schulze – 30 minutes
*George Washington’s Home Town, by Miss
Betty’s American History Tours – 50 minutes
George Washington: American Revolutionary, documentary – 50
minutes
* Knute Rockne All American, Bedtime for
Bonzo, The Santa Fe Trail – all over an hour long
Links:
http://www.MountVernon.org – George
Washington
http://www.ushistory.org/ValleyForge/ - George Washington
*http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSu5TTKGcJw – Ronald Reagan
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