Saturday, March 5, 2011

President Washington



We started our second day of learning about our greatest presidents by making log cabins from stick pretzels.
















We read a story about how many of the people in rural and colonial America had to cut down trees to build their homes. Abe Lincoln grew up in a log cabin.
















President Washington is a great example we learned about because he never lied.
















We read the story of how when he was a boy, he was playing with an axe, and whittled/chopped down a young cherry tree.
















When his father noticed that the tree had been cut down, he asked who had done that.
































Young George could not tell a lie, and admitted that he had. It disappointed his father, but he was pleased that the boy already had integrity.

Lincoln--Beards and Pennies



February is a very predictable month for school kids. We go right from Valentine's Day into President's Day with our focus and activities. One of the cute things that we did this year is make a "beard" like Abraham Lincoln's. It was a little tricky to attach to the kidlets--but they enjoyed learning about what a great man and president he was.










For some, the beards did not go over very well. But the penny game was a lot of fun. Everyone got a bowl full of pennies, (good thing they are so cheap, huh?) to put on the penny counting sheet. I had the kids practice counting with the coins and listening for the number called to sort and count what they needed.










The dollar stores had large penny replications in the past couple of years in the party favor section. I stocked up on those and we did crayon rubbings with them. We placed the large penny under the paper and rubbed with a crayon. We were able to see the huge picture of Lincoln's profile.








MoRe TuRtLeS....




Things have been a little behind schedule in preschool lately, because so many kids have been sick :( So, on Wednesday, we made another cute Turtle craft instead of Lincoln's cabin.





It was a lot of fun to decorate the painted bowl with dried split peas to create a design like a turtle's shell.




The yellow split peas created enough variety to make the shell tri-toned. The kids loved the simplicity with a piece of green construction paper making the arms, legs, and head of the turtle.