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Using Primary Sources:
Letters from the Presidents
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Subjects
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Grades 6-8, 9-12 |
Brief Description
This lesson introduces students to the minds and thoughts of presidents through their actual letters.
Objectives
Students
- learn about the personal lives of presidents.
- learn about presidents' personal and familial relationships.
- learn about the character and personalities of presidents.
- learn about how presidents reacted to the historic events in which they participated.
Keywords
biography, diary, journal, letter, president
Materials Needed
Lesson Plan
This lesson by seventh-grade teacher Steven Vetter comes from American Presidents: Life Portraits, a companion Web site to C-SPAN's 20th Anniversary Television Series American Presidents: Life Portraits. In the activity, students learn about the presidents by touring the American Presidents Web site. Then they choose one president and read a letter written by him. They use the letter to respond in writing to a set of questions that deal with its components and what it reveals about the writer. As a wrap-up to the activity, students create essays in response to one of five assignments.See the complete lesson at Using Primary Sources: Letters from the Presidents. There Vetter shares his rationale for the lesson and for using primary source documents in Using Letters of the Presidents in the Classroom.
Assessment
Evaluate students' written compositions.
Lesson Plan Source
American Presidents
Submitted By
Cara Bafile
National Standards
LANGUAGE ARTS: English
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GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.1 Reading for Perspective
NL-ENG.K-12.2 Reading for Understanding
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
SOCIAL SCIENCES: Civics
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GRADES 5 - 8
NSS-C.5-8.1 Civic Life, Politics, and Government -
GRADES 9 - 12
NSS-C.9-12.1 Civic Life, Politics, and Government
SOCIAL SCIENCES: U.S. History
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GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-USH.5-12.3 Era 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
NSS-USH.5-12.4 Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
NSS-USH.5-12.5 Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
NSS-USH.5-12.6 Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
NSS-USH.5-12.7 Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
NSS-USH.5-12.8 Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
NSS-USH.5-12.9 Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
NSS-USH.5-12.10 Era 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the Present)
SOCIAL SCIENCES: World History
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GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-WH.5-12.7 An Age of Revolutions, 1750-1914
NSS-WH.5-12.8 The 20th Century
TECHNOLOGY
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GRADES K - 12
NT.K-12.5 Technology Research Tools
See more lessons at Presidents' Day Activities!
Click here to return to the Hail to the Chief! lesson plan page.
Last updated 2/13/2012
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Are you tired of having the same old activities at your school's end-of-the-year field day? Are you eager to hold a very special field day event this year? These lessons provide more ideas than you can possibly use -- and links to many more. You will find
field day activities that individual students can excel and have fun with;
great relays for small teams of students that teach sportsmanship;
activities that involve the whole class;
more than a dozen themed field day ideas (if themes are your preference); and
a bubbly way to cap off the day!
We have provided all the ideas, all you need to do now is the preparation. Field day success is guaranteed if you prepare and plan well.
Field Day Resources and Giveaways
To help you get off on the right foot, we've put together some field day preparation tips. You'll find those tips in the endbar at the end of this article. In addition, our parent company, S&S Worldwide, is the leader in providing field day resources to schools nationwide. Visit their field day page to access PE Central's exclusive ebook, Top 10 Field Day Activities, fun products to use at your events, and to enter S&S Worldwide's Field Day Giveaway, which will award eight lucky winners with a total of $1,500 in S&S Gift Cards to use toward their Field Day event.
Four Lessons For A Fantastic Field Day
Below are four lessons that provide all the ingredients for a fantastic field day. Click each lesson headlines for a complete teaching resource. (Appropriate grade levels for each lesson appear in parentheses.)
Twenty Field Day Activities Any Kid Can Do (And Do Well!)
Twenty great field day activities that emphasize fun over skill. (Grades Pre K-8)
Fifteen Field Day Relays
Relay races can be a fun part of any field day. Included: 15 great relay ideas! (Grade K-12)
Field Day Games for Whole-Class Fun
Field day games including a Teacher Sled Race, Water Balloon Volleyball, more! (Grades K-12)
Bubble Blast
Bubbles inspire learning and fun -- and clean desks too. A nice field day addition! (Grades PreK-8)
Preparation and Planning Ensure Field Day Success
With a little advance planning, field day can be as special and as much fun as you choose to make it. Following are some decisions you'll want to make before the actual field day arrives
• How many field day activities will you set up?
• How will the field day events be organized? Will students move from activity to activity with their classmates (which will enable the inclusion of relay activities), or will you set up 20 different activities and let students select the ones they most want to participate in?
• Will students receive field day awards as they complete an activity?
You might provide a different colored ribbon or a different colored jellybean for each completed activity.
Each student might wear a card listing all the possible activities; a star is placed on the card as each activity is completed.
Each student might earn a different colored link on a paper chain for each completed activity.
• Will you hold a field day awards ceremony?
Awards might recognize the best "scores" for each activity by grade level or class.
Special awards might be given to students who complete the most activities, providing an incentive for students to do as many activities as possible during the field day. That keeps students moving and encourages them to participate in activities with have shorter lines.
• Will teachers supervise the different field day activities? Or will parents be involved so teachers can stay with their own classes or serve as general assistants? (The more parents the better!)
• What other special activities will coincide with field day?
Might you plan a family cookout? Will the local radio station be invited to broadcast live from and provide music for Field Day festivities? Will older students dress in costumes and provide a cheering section for younger students? Will each class create a banner? Will a prize be awarded for the best banner?
• Be sure to have a nurse available.
Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World®
Copyright © 2007, 2017 Education World
Subject: ELA- Reading
Grade: 3
Lesson Objective: To identify how illustrations add to a story and how to figure out what they express
Common Core Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7- Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)
Materials:
Printable Handout - Reading Selection on the Book, Doctor De Soto by William Steig
Starter:
Say:
Do you like to read books with illustrations? Why or why not? (Allow the students to answer.)
Main:
Say:
Illustrations are pictures in books that help to tell the story.
When we are reading books, illustrations can help us to understand what is happening in a story, what a character in a story is doing or help us to see something that might be hard to imagine.
Sometimes an author describes a situation that is difficult to imagine if you have no experience with it. Illustrations help to show the situation with pictures.
Sometimes, illustrations can help us to understand the feelings of characters in a book. Red is often used to represent angry, blue is often used to represent calm and green is often used to represent jealousy. Illustrators can use these colors to help us understand emotion.
Can you think of a time that illustrations help you when you were reading a book? (Allow the students to answer.)
When reading a book that has illustrations, you can look through the book and just look at the illustrations before you read the book. This will give you an idea of what the book is going to be about.
You are now going to read part of Dr. Desoto. While you are reading, I want you to look at the illustrations and think about how they help to tell the story.
After you have finished reading, there are questions for you to answer. Write the answers to the questions that are below the story.
Does anyone have any questions?
Feedback:
Say:
Who would like to share their answers? (Allow the students to share and go over the answers and where they came from.)
Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer
Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.
Copyright© 2019 Education World
Subject: ELA- Reading
Grade: 4
Lesson Objective: To read unfamiliar multisyllabic words in and out of context
Common Core Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.4.3.A- Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.
Materials:
Printable Student Worksheet
Starter:
Say:
When you come to a word that you do not know when you are reading, what do you do? (Allow the students to answer.)
Main:
Say:
We all find words that we do not know when we are reading. There are different ways that we can figure out a word that we do not know. You told me some great ways.
We can ask someone to help us with the word. But, sometimes, you do not have anyone around who can help.
You can sound the word out. You are reading books that are harder and longer now. Sounding out a word is not as easy as it used to be!
You need to think about all of the different parts of the word. You should look to see if there is an ending, like a suffix. You should also look to see if there is a prefix.
After you have looked for parts of the word that you recognize and know, you can look try to sound the rest of the word out.
Try to figure out the syllables in the word and sound out each syllable. Then, put everything together and read the whole word.
Now, you are going to be doing a worksheet so that you can practice reading difficult words. You will read the paragraph. There are words that are underlined in the paragraph, those are the difficult words.
After you have read the whole paragraph and tried the hard words, you are going to find a partner and take turns reading the list of words at the bottom of the worksheet to each other.
Does anyone have any questions?
Feedback:
Say:
Who would like to share how to read the words? (Allow the students to share and go over the answers.)
Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer
Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.
Copyright© 2019 Education World
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