Abe Lincoln's Hat

Presidents Day is around the corner. It's always fun to uncover some new and interesting tidbit about these figures that we've visited so many times in the past. Like Abe Lincoln storing important papers in his hat, or George Washington using tricks to win battles during the Revolutionary War.

It's also a good chance to have a lesson on observing the features on faces. We use a portrait. We start by talking about some of the different shapes of faces; square, round, oval. I demonstrate a drawing, voicing my thoughts as I determine the shape of the face, then the size and placement of eyes, nose, mouth and hair. I'm not great at drawing, so my demo doesn't intimidate. In fact it demonstrates the ability to laugh at oneself. Both these drawings were done by 5 year olds. The one has a little hat made with a half circle and a rectangle of black paper pasted onto it.

This is a small hat the children can make. Use black construction paper. Make the rectangle about 3 inches instead of 2 5/8 inches wide in order to be able to cut tabs in the top also. Bend the top tabs inward. Use paste to attach the small circle for the hat's top. The slightly curled up sides on the hat brim will give it the well worn look of Abe's own hat.

Dear Mr. President,

We've finally reached the present day after introducing each and every president in their order. Well, I did cheat, talking about Lincoln out of order to coincide with his birthday. We found out about the pets, the big events from who could vote through inventions to space travel, who had the neatest handwriting, how fast Jimmy Carter could read and presidents' former jobs. The picture shows part of the rows of presidential portraits covering the wall. As you can see, Grover Cleveland was president both before and after B. Harrison, however we didn't have another picture of G.C. Immediatly, our artists got to work on another G.C. portrait. Then, to cap off all of this information, I wrote out the address of the White House and suggested that each child could write a postcard with a question or a comment for President Obama. Here's what some of the children wrote:

Dear Barack Obama, I like your name. Dear Mr. President, I like that you got to be president. Dear Mr. President, How old are you? I am 5 years old. Do you know that you were against Hillary Clinton?

history lessons

We've been reading book after book about our early presidents and enjoying all of them. We made Abe Lincoln's log cabin and some tried drawing him. One of the books showed his signature. Since it was put on our light table, tracing it has been a popular way to practice a little cursive writing.

Today we read a book about George Washington's favorite breakfast. It was too simple to not try it. So here are the hoe cakes frying. Surprisingly, everyone loved them and came back for seconds.

Next week we'll begin learning fun facts about more of our past presidents. What kind of pets did they have? One had two alligators. What did they like to eat? How did they have fun in the White House? How did they help our country?