Presidents' Day Recap

We have spent the past two weeks learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Sadly, I was out sick for half of the George Washington activities, but my subs did a great job teaching the lessons I left. One thing I did manage to get done with my kiddos are these amazing Washington directed drawings.

I told the kids they were not allowed to erase, unless I told them they could do so. I assured them that this was possible. I modeled each step on the whiteboard and coached them to observe carefully and think about what they wanted their drawing to look like on their own paper as they added each new element. They did great!

Thankfully, we didn't have any substitutes this week and I was able to enjoy teaching my kiddos all about my most favorite president, Abraham Lincoln. Here's a look at what we did this week (caution: you are about to be barraged by photos).

The students practiced taking notes as I read aloud a book about Abraham Lincoln. Then, they used their notes to complete Three Truths and a Lie. They love this activity because they always want to see if they can trick their partner.

We also did a directed drawing of Abe. Once again, the kids did an amazing job!

Yesterday, I woke up at 3:30 to attend to my coughing toddler and couldn't sleep afterward, so like any teacher, my mind started racing and I decided that I wanted to create something to show my students just how tall Lincoln was. We had read the previous day that he was 6'4", but that doesn't mean much to a 7 year old (without seeing it, that is).

I cut some butcher paper that measured 6'4" and then put a tag with Lincoln's name at the top of the display. Next, I had my neighbor measure me and I placed my name on the chart so they could see that he was taller than me. I had each student come to the chart and we plotted their names to show their height in relation to Lincoln (I didn't take a pic of this because there would have been too many names to try and blur out). They loved comparing themselves to Abe, and each other.

We also practiced our constructed response skills. We read an article about Lincoln and then completed the writing piece whole group.

The students used the same article to create a mini book about Lincoln.

The kids have also enjoyed using these centers from my best blogging buddy, Jaime, from Bright Concepts 4 Teachers. Her Patriotic Presidents' Day pack has tons of great activities. They practically run to grab an activity from the bin whenever they have free time!

Today, we watched two short videos on the life of each president. Both videos can be accessed in the video archive on the Scholastic News website (you have to subscribe to the newspaper in order to access).

After watching the videos, we played a game of I Spy. The students had to read the clue printed on each card and identify which president was being described.

My kids l.o.v.e. I Spy. Why? Because not only do they get to move around, but they get to move around like a spy! They creep about the room so as not to be detected by the other spies. They don't even talk to the other spies because they don't know if the other person is an evil spy or not. Ha!

Many of these activities are from my Two Great Presidents pack on TpT. Click the image to check it out!