2009 Presidents Day Lesson Plans: 1st Grade

a. Pick out a top hat so that it looks like Abraham Lincoln's. In the top hat have all 44 presidents written on a sheet of paper. After all of the students take a seat and are ready, have them pick out a president from the top hat. 15 - 20 minutes.

b. Have a picture of Abraham Lincoln on the projection bored and black and white coloring sheet of a picture of him on each of the desks. Have a few pennies around so that when they finish coloring they can see his face on the penny. 20-30 minutes.

c. Have a few fun facts that you can read off to them so that at the end of the day you can do jeopardy. A good question to model from would be, "who cut down a cherry tree?" 30-40 minutes.

d. On the board have the presidents names that have been picked, and when you come to it write their facts on the board. At the end of the day there should be a big board of presidents and facts(This is where you can get all of your jeopardy questions from). 15- 20 minutes.

2. President faces:

a. On the board have a big poster board of all the presidents that have served.

b. Have oval, and square shaped faces cut out from construction paper

c. Cut circles for the eyes from black paper

d. Have different shapes of white hair or colored hair

e. Cut out different shaped noses as well

f. Have the children find their president and try to make him exactly the same

i. Have the children go in groups of 5 to go up and look at the presidents

ii. Send them to a table to pick up the different pieces of construction paper that make up their presidents face.

iii. Glue together the presidents faces

3. Math:

a. You can incorporate money, and the presidents that are on the dollar bills and coins

b. Choose a president and have the children call out what type of money they are on, or have them add up dollars, and coins.

c. After that you can have a black and white picture of all the dollar bills that they can color in. 30-60 minutes.

4. Language:

a. Have circle time and read about different presidents.

b. Show them the different types of clothing that they use to wear, and incorporate the funny white wigs that they wore.

c. Make learning about presidents fun and interactive.

d. Play the circle game and start with a president's name and see what it changes to at the end. 30-60 minutes.

5. Fun & Cupcakes:

a. Have red, white and blue cupcakes that they can frost.

b. If you don't want a big mess, bake the little ones up and frost them beforehand and pass the cupcakes out at the end of the day, or after lunch. 30-60 minutes.