President's Day Activities

There are always pros and cons that come with a short week of school. However, when you have a short week plus a day that you are away for a field trip it makes for an extra extra short week. 

This short week allowed us to spend time studying the ever popular well-known Presidents in the young primary grades, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Note for next year, when discussing the Presidents, do the was/accomplished/liked together in whole group and then let the kids fill it in on their own after discussing in whole group. My kids really struggled with how to do this on their own the first go-around. The second day worked out much better after a little we do, you do lesson on Abe Lincoln.

Here are some journal entries that turned out well. The students' morning work assignment was to write a journal entry about what it would be like to be the President. Perhaps this can be done better next year after studying about the President and what he (hopefully one day she) does. This would give them a good reason to justify why they would or would not want to be President and what they would do if they were President.

Clearly some of my kids had no desire to President....and that is perfectly fine! They loved getting to share what they would do if they were President with the rest of the class. We also got to take turns "glowing and growing" where the students pointed out things that they liked and some things that they need to work on. It's great to have peers helping you get better with your writing!

I need to find a way to add in American Symbols next year. Too much testing for interventions got in the way....go figure....