From Stormie:
My
Country/Flag:
The
reason I like talking a little about our country/flag during February is because
it's a nice lead-in to the subject of "Presidents."
For starters, begin with a mini Group Time discussion (preschool level of
understanding). I share the details of my favorite topics for this discussion
in the "My Country/Flag" section of my Valentine's Day booklet. Here
are a few additional tips/theme ideas:
*Classroom
Theme-Related Decor Ideas: Why not
post patriotic pictures on your classroom walls during this unit? In
the past, I have found pictures in magazines, and posters at the library (pictures
of various presidents, various places in Washington D.C., patriotic symbols, the
American flag, etc).
*Language:
Wear-N-Tell: Instead of Show-N-Tell, have a special day that children wear
the colors of red, white, and blue in celebration of the flag. During "Wear-N-Tell,"
each child gets up and shows off their clothing pointing out the three colors,
stars, stripes, or other designs, etc.
*Creative Art: Provide only red, white, and blue collage materials for the Art Center.
*Mini-Homework: Can you find a picture of our American flag and bring it to school? (Send a note home to parents so they can assist their child in this project.)
*Flag Cake: Bring a plain white cake to school (or have the children help you make a boxed cake in advance). Have them take turns helping to spread white frosting on the top. They can then place blueberries in the upper left hand corner to represent the stars of a flag, then alternate white frosting rows with rows of strawberries for the flag stripes.
*Oh, just to remind you, activities for the Fourth of July could also be used during this unit. (I have quite a few ideas listed in the "June, July, August" section of my website -- don't worry, you won't miss them -- they're coming up.)
What Is a President?
Ok, so in conjunction with discussing "country," we can then talk about how a country must have a leader. With the children during another Group Time, I like to relate this to a home situation where mommies and daddies are leaders but where children can also make rules/decisions that help out the "family." Or, you could also use the "classroom" as an example, where the teacher is the leader, but again, the children also help make rules/decisions that make the classroom a nice inviting place. You might also discuss what it would be like if our homes had no rules, or what it would be like if the family/classroom leader didn't allow the children to make decisions. This discussion can then lead to talking about how it's the same for our country. We live in a country where we are allowed to make decisions about how we live. And, our country also needs a leader, someone who will listen to what all the people have to say. This leader is called the "President." (It's difficult to predict how any classroom discussion will go but I think you get the gist of what I'm suggesting.)
*Presidential Photos: Introduce pictures of various presidents and tell the children interesting tidbits you may know about certain leaders.
*Presidential Home and Family: Where does a president live? (Point out Washington D.C. on your classroom globe, and/or show pictures of the White House.) Discuss the fact that presidents can be a man or woman even though we have had only men presidents so far. Talk about how presidents can also be daddies and mommies.
*If
the children are ready and interested, you could talk about:
--"Law"
is another word for "rule."
--When we decide
who our president will be, we "vote." If time permits, you could
hold a mini Group Time sample election.
Protecting Our Country/Attacks on America: This is a topic I've added to my website since the attacks on our country. Although we don't want to dwell on what happened, it is our job to answer children's questions and try to make them feel safe. This topic can be related to the theme of "president" as we explain that one of the jobs of our president is to keep our country safe. But because I would rather rely on the opinion of experts in this matter, here are some places on the internet that offer assistance in explaining such events to preschoolers. If you decide to go to these websites now, you can return here when you're done by continually hitting your "BACK" button until you arrive back to this page:
*From
the NAEYC: http://www.naeyc.org/coping_with_disaster.htm
*From
Dr. Spock's website: http://www.drspock.com/topic/0,1504,677+cbx_families,00.html
*From
FEMA: http://www.fema.gov/nwz01/nwz01_99.htm
If you have resources to offer on this topic, please e-mail them to me at: stormie@preschoolbystormie.com
Current President:
After learning
about what a president is and what he does, we can talk about and show pictures
of our current president and his family, as well as pets they may have, things
they like to do -- any concrete information that preschoolers can relate to and/or
appreciate.
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Please share your ideas too by e-mailing me at stormie@preschoolbystormie.com:
From
Stephanie Joseph, Marietta, Georgia:
Bulletin Board Idea:
Buy large paper money (bills) and cut the picture of the presidents out from the
middle. Replace them with pictures of your students. Laminate them.
Add the caption "Future Presidents."
Here's
a book suggestion from Donna Niemeier that can be adapted for use with
preschoolers:
September 11th Book: Stormie, A group of
first graders from my hometown of Kennett, Missouri wrote a book that was published
by Scholastic last year. The name of the book is "September
12: We Knew We Would Be All Right." This is their writings
and pictures of how various people in their lives helped them to know that everything
would be okay after the 9/11 tragedy. It's really a touching book.
From
Dorothy Ponto, West Deptford, New Jersey:
Following
Directions Craft: Flags: For each child, we cut a rectangle from white construction
paper. We then had them place the palm of one hand in blue paint and
press it into the corner of the paper. We then drew lines across the paper
and had the children fill them in with red fingerprints. These flags turned
out great, and they turned out to be lessons in hand-eye coordination, following
and staying on a line, and moving from left to right (a reading skill).
-----------------------
Reminder
from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom
ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you
can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here
to check them out.
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