Learning about the Presidents!!

For Presidents' Day yesterday, I had the girls do a timeline on the history of Presidents' Day and we make acrostic poems.  Well, we just wrote phrases about Washington and Lincoln and didn't make them rhyme, but I thought they turned out very informative, so I am going to share them. :)  The girls came up with most of the ideas.

This is how the sheet looked when we started, then I had the girls come up with phrases about George Washington. I made the letters in "Washington" bold, sorry if it is hard to follow!

W
A
S
H
I
N
G
T
O
N

Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia
Head of colonial Army
Son of a prosperous planter
Served in the House of Burgesses (Virginia)
Intelligent
No one but him was the first president
Took charge of the new Government
Took measurements of lands as first job
On the one dollar bill and the quarter
Never gave up at Valley Forge

We did the same thing with Abraham Lincoln.  Since we had just finished a huge unit on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, we didn't even had to look at our books. :)

It started like this:
A
B
E
L
I
N
C
O
L
N

And ended like this:
Appointed 16th president in 1860
Became a Congressman in 1847
wrote the "Emancipation Proclomation"
Lived in a log cabin as a child
Got shot In Ford's Theatre
Never for slavery
Coordinated the Northern Armies during the Civil War
Orated the "Gettysburg Address"
Lived in Springfield, Illinois
Became a National figure in 1858

We also took time to talk about the other two presidents who have birthdays in February? Do you know who they are??

Have you ever heard of the Uniform Monday Act passed in 1968??  It went into effect in 1971 with an Executive Order by Richard Nixon. (And of course, then we had to talk about his presidency and his impeachment!) This Act is what made four federal holidays through out the year be moved to Mondays instead of on their intended date. This gave all federal employees a 3-day weekend.  The other holidays that were moved were Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and Memorial Day! ("But wait," you say, "Veterans Day is celebrated on November 11th, not on a Monday." You are right! There was such an uproar that Congress moved Veterans Day back to November 11th and it didn't matter which day of the week it fell on!)

And at this time, it was still called "Washington's Birthday," but by about the 1990's, states started putting "Presidents' Day" on the calendar instead of "Washington's Birthday" in order to honor all the presidents who had led our country- what does your calendar say the holiday was yesterday? Mine actually says both!!

Oh the things I learned this week!!!