Presidents' Day is Coming: Interactive Notebook Activity

1. Dogs, cats and birds have often found a home in the White House. 

2. There have also been some unique pets such as John Quincy Adams’ pet alligator,Martin Van Buren two tiger cubs and James Buchanan’s elephant. President Coolidge had a wallaby and a pygmy hippo and Theodore Roosevelt had a lion, hyena, five bears, a piebald rat, and a zebra. Only Presidents Arthur, Fillmore and Piece had no pets.

3. President Washington was an avid spelunker,enjoying exploring caves. 

4. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only president to be elected  four times.The constitution was later changed to allow only two four-year terms.

5. President Theodore Roosevelt named the Executive Mansion or President’s House, the White House.

6. Only President George Washington did  not live in the White House. It was opened in 1800.

7. The Star-Spangled Banner became the National anthem under President Herbert Hoover.

8. President William Henry Harrison only served one month after taking the oath of office, dying from pneumonia.

9. President Van Buren is said to have started the expression OK, signing paper with his “Old Kinderhook” nickname.

10. Left handed President James Garfield  could write with both hands at the same time and in different languages such as Greek and Latin.

11. President John K. Kennedy was the first president who had been a Boy Scout in his youth.

12. President George W. Bush was appointed President in 2000 by Supreme Court after the election results gave him more electoral votes but his opponent, Al Gore won the popular vote. John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. hayes and Benjamin Harrison also won the presidency without the majority of the voters. 

13. The teddy bear was named after President Theodore Roosevelt. 

14 .President Richard Nixon was the first president to resign his presidency over a scandal called Watergate.

15.President Taft became chief justice of the Supreme Court after leaving the White House, saying he preferred this job to that of being President of the United States 

16. Gerald Ford was the only president of the United States to not be elected by the people. He was appointed vice president by President Nixon and later assumed the office of president when President Nixon resigned.

17. President John Quincy Adams liked to swims naked in the Potomac River ...in the early morning.

YOUR TURN:
1. Pretend you are the President of the United States. Write a diary entry about a day in your life. Who did you meet in the Oval Office? What issue do you address? Etc.

2. Which president would you like to meet and why? What would you ask of this President?

3. What are FOUR characteristics you feel that someone who is President should possess? Why are these characteristics important?

TEACHER PAGE:
Extension Activities:
1. Try this FREE web quest on the Presidents of the United States:

2. Have students illustrate a Presidential Factoid.

3. Have students share some of their responses from YOUR TURN.

Download this FREE Interactive Notebook Activity: PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA

by Gail Hennessey