Presidents Day and Patriotic Symbols

We spent one day this week discussing President's Day and Patriotic Symbols.    First, we read Then and Now to discuss the idea of History and long ago.   Then we read Presidents Day by Rockwell and discussed who Presidents are/were and why they are important.  We mentioned who our current President is and George had a lot of trouble pronouncing Barack Obama.

We read the section from What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know on George Washington, which includes the legend about chopping down the cherry tree.  We discussed what the story showed about Washington (his honesty) and why that was important.    We also watched a Sesame Street video about Washington and his father's cherry tree.

After our readings, we did coloring pages on George Washington and on the Quarter and Dollar.   Then we made a cherry tree by gluing red pom poms to a picture of a bare tree.  While they were doing their coloring/crafts, I read some of the information about Washington from Usborne Encyclopedia of World History.

After Washington, we discussed Abraham Lincoln.  We read his section of What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know and discussed how hard it was to learn to read by firelight.  WYKNTK mentioned the story where the nickname Honest Abe came from and we discussed the importance of honesty again.

After reading, we did coloring pages on Abe Lincoln and the Penny and $5 bill.    We made a log cabin out of rolled-up paper logs.  We were going to do an experiment which involved cleaning pennies in vinegar but they were too impatient and kept sticking their fingers in the vinegar.  The experiment was from http://www.exploratorium.edu/.

After discussing Presidents, we moved on to Patriotic Symbols.  We went to Ben's Guide to US Government for Kids and looked at the links for Patriotic Symbols.  We discussed the flag - why it has 50 stars and 13 stripes and the importance of red, white and blue.

We practiced with scissors by cutting red, white and blue paper into small pieces which we then glued to a star template.  Once the glue dried, the star was cut out and hung.

We also did an F is for Flag magnet page by gluing on paper circles from a red and blue star patterned scrapbook paper. 

I had recently printed out and set up bottlecap letter sheets for Vicki.  I gave her the first one today - FLAG - and she was able to do it very easily.  Too easily, once she was done she started peeling the letters off the bottle caps.  I think I'm going to redo them using sticker paper (I had just glued them) and Mod Podge over them.   Most of the letter pages were from Confessions of a Homeschooler but I did the Flag one up myself (she has F is for Fish).

We discussed the Pledge of Allegiance and decorated a print-out using patriotic stickers.

The books we used for this Theme: