A teacher’s schedule goes from the beginning of school in September to mid June, punctuated by various holidays, breaks and special occasions. When I look back it felt like the years zoomed by with those punctuations: Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and winter break, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, maybe a mid-winter break, Easter, spring break, Memorial Day and finally, School’s Out!
A few weeks separated these high points, and when I had my own classroom I made use of them to teach meaningful, high interest lessons. One I particularly enjoyed was President’s Day as learning about Washington and Lincoln allowed lessons on our country’s history, and values like honesty and truth telling. Who isn’t aware that Lincoln was so honest that he walked six miles to repay 6 cents to a customer who had overpaid; or that Washington could not tell a lie when asked if he cut down his father’s apple tree.
A book I particularly liked sharing with children was entitled The Story of Abraham Lincoln by Bernadine Bailey. I have had it since I was a youngster, and my cousin had it before me. It is ragged, worn, and even torn, with scribbles on the inside cover, but nonetheless dear to me. To my surprise I learned that several copies are still available through Amazon, and if you are a teacher of young children I urge you to nab one while you can.
This seventy year old book, published in 1942, enthrals children to this day. In it we see a family struggling with financial woes, a parent’s death, step-siblings, chores, homework, mischievous behaviour and many other experiences a young person today might have in common with Young Abe. How his hard work, vision and dreams translated to his success in life is an inspirational message for children.
If kids are getting a long weekend off from school they should really understand why these two men were honored. The following lesson plan using multiple intelligences makes learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln fun and memorable.
A great resource for teachers can also be found at a site called “Apples 4 the teacher.”
Linguistic – Read stories about both Lincoln and Washington. The library and internet are filled with numerous examples.
Interpersonal – Compare the childhoods of the two presidents. Discuss the contributions and importance of each to our country. For older children compare and contrast the American Revolution and the Civil War and what both meant for America.
Visual-Spatial - Here is a great art project for Lincoln. Copy the following poem “Abraham Lincoln, Kind an good, is honored and loved by many. To help us remember this president, we put his face on our penny.” The author is unknown. Draw a penny sized circle at the end. On a red and/or blue construction paper background, paste the paper with the poem to one side. Cut out a silhouette of Lincoln, and paste it beside the poem. Using white glue, paste a shiny penny in the circle by the poem. It can be placed on a class bulletin board or taken home for the refrigerator.
Here is another anonymous short poem for Washington which can also have a silhouette next to the poem. “We cannot all be Washingtons, and have our birthdays celebrated. But we can love the things he loved, and hate the things he hated. He loved the truth, he hated lies. He minded what his mother taught him. And every day he tried to do the simple duties brought him.”
Intrapersonal: Surf the web for games and activities about both presidents. Try these sites for good information: Click on George Washington or Abraham Lincoln to bring up the sites.
Logical/Mathematical: Examine pennies and dollars for the pictures of the two presidents. List all of the presidents from our first one, George Washington, until our present one, Barak Obama. Convert the dollar to pennies or pennies to a dollar. Research what you could buy with pennies or a dollar in those times.
Kinesthetic - Using Lincoln logs, design a house you could have lived in back in the day. Role play anecdotes like George cutting down the apple tree and what might have happened as a result. Play “store” and have items for sale that might have been available in Lincoln’s time.
Music – From Washington’s time listen to an original song called Yankee Doodle. From Abraham Lincoln’s time listen to some old ballads of America.
of America.
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