When my son started his presidential dollar coin collection,
an interest in the presidents was ignited. At a recent trip to an area
presidential museum, his grandmother bought him a deck of cards with all the
presidents. Of all the trinkets he could have picked out, that’s what he
wanted. I love that about him.
To take his interest beyond just their names and order in
the lineage of presidents, I checked out a book on my absolute favorite
president: Abraham Lincoln. Looking at
Lincoln isn’t just another boring book, it’s a journey of discovery.
A child spots a man while on a walk that reminds her of someone but she can’t recall just who until she pays for breakfast with a five-dollar bill. Eureka! The man she saw looked like our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln! Curious, she heads to the library to do a little research. The book reveals all her discoveries about his life, his contribution to the history of the United States, his death, and the Washington, D. C. Lincoln Memorial.
The book pushed us into lots of heavy discussions about
things like what it means to be poor, what slavery was, and what the civil war
was about. I didn’t try to overwhelm him with detailed explanations,
remembering that he’s only almost-seven years old. I could tell my son was
really listening and thinking when he said, “People don’t have slaves today, do
they?” We could have stopped our learning there and I would have chalked this
whole activity up as a success.
But we didn’t. Instead we made a hat like Lincoln used to
wear.
It’s amazing what you can do with two pieces of black posterboard,
some gray ribbon, and a low-temp glue gun. Here’s how we did it!
Cut a rectangle of black posterboard (1) so it’s slightly larger
than the circumference of your child’s head.
Draw two lines roughly an inch and a half away from the edge
of each long side of the rectangle. Make several cuts straight in up to the
line on each side, approximately ¾-inch apart. If you’ve done it right, your
rectangle will have fringe (2).
Roll your rectangle into a tube and glue together (3). Gently
trace the circle formed by the tube onto another piece of black posterboard.
Set that aside for later.
On one end of the tube, fold the fringe back (4); this is the
base of the hat. On the other end, fold the fringe flaps in for the top of
your hat (5).
Then slide the donut-shaped circle down the hat (7). You may
need to re-trim the inside circle to make it bigger. It should be snug.
Tip the hat over and add dots of glue to the flaps (8). An adult should carefully press
down onto the donut brim (even though it's a low-temp glue gun, it's still hot!). If your flaps stick out past the brim, trim the
excess away.
Add glue to the fringe flaps at the top of your hat (9) and attach the small circle.
Now add a wide gray ribbon around the base of the hat, above the brim.
Now add a wide gray ribbon around the base of the hat, above the brim.
Before our learning time ended, I gave my son some small
business card-sized “Abraham Lincoln …” slips of paper.
It was up to him to complete the sentence. He wrote out six sentences. Abraham Lincoln …
Download a PDF of the Abraham Lincoln Fact Recording Cards here. |
It was up to him to complete the sentence. He wrote out six sentences. Abraham Lincoln …
was tall.
liked reading.
was kicked by a mule.
was 16th president.
was shot.
Because Maira Kalman’s book shared that Abe used to write
notes and stuff them inside his hat, we glued our fact slips onto the bottom
side of our hat’s brim.
That's a fun and educational activity. I bet it was memorable for him.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have wonderful discussion. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall. The book and hat look great!
ReplyDeleteThank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.
This activity is AWESOME. I have a slight obsession with historical non fiction. Pinned and shared....well done, mama!
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Love the hat, and the facts attached to the brim!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with Learning Laboratory at Mama Smiles =)
So fun! I love a good history project that ties in some art. :)
ReplyDeleteOH, that is great!! So much fun filled with so much learning. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
ReplyDeleteSuper fun! What a perfect project! I featured this at TGIF this week (http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2012/06/tgif-linky-party-35.html). Thanks for linking up and I look forward to seeing what you link up today!! Beth =-)
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