Happy President's Day! ...from kindergarten

Happy President's Day!  Like many other schools out there, we will be in school tomorrow.  We are going to celebrate President's Day all day!  To start the day, we are going to learn about the two presidents who have birthdays this month: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Dr. Jean has a long song about money.  I take each verse (each coin) and teach them individually.  We are about to start our money unit in math, so this is the perfect time to introduce them!  I will let each student hold a penny and quarter and study them with a partner.  We'll only learn the penny and quarter.

Here are the lyrics (to the tune of Clementine):

Found a penny, found a penny
Found a penny just now!
It is round and brown and shiny
Found a penny just now.
I see Lincoln, I see Lincoln,
Our 16th president.
On the back is his Memorial,
Penny, Penny
Worth one cent!

Found a quarter, found a quarter
Found a quarter just now!
It is big and round and silver
Found a quarter just now
I see Washington, I see Washington
Our first president
On the back the bald eagle
Quater's worth 25 cents!

Next up, we will talk about George Washington.  I have "A Picture Book of George Washington" to read to the students.  We'll also touch briefly on the cherry tree story.  Then we will create a picture of him and record one fact we learned about him:

Up next: Abe Lincoln!  I have the same picture book of Abraham Lincoln to share.  We'll make a log cabin and put a penny in the window.  We'll talk about Honest Abe, and write a fact about him that we learn!

How can you celebrate President's Day without wishing you were president too?  I found an old but cute handout with a picture of the oval office at the top and handwriting lines with plenty of room.  We will talk about President Obama and his responsibilities.  Then we will think of things that we would like to see happen in our country.  After that, the students will write about what they would do as president to make our country even better!

If we have time, we will do an interactive writing activity to write a letter to President Obama.

**I am a stickler for modeling to my students how to be respectful.  My beloved grandmother who was my classroom coach for many years taught me that you call the President of the United states either Mr. President, Mr. lastname, or President lastname.  You do not refer to him as "lastname" only.  So it's President Obama, Mr. Obama, or Mr. President.  :o)  That's the only rant I have today!  Love you, Grandma!



Thanks for reading!  Be at peace, and all will be well