So You Want To Be President

So You Want To Be President by Judith St. George http://www.epinions.com/book_mu-3527267 Presentation by: Jesse Johnson, Sandy Tawzer, Jill Soldatke So You Want To Be President, This is a picture book full of interesting trivia of our 41 Presidents. The book shares things the reader may or may not do if he or she were President. Judith St. George, David Small (illustrations) Philomel Books, 2000 Goals To learn who the Presidents of the United States of America are. To get young people involved not only in the past events but also in current events. Contemporary Issues Politics play a big role in today’s society. Presidents are regular people who do ordinary things. Students can accomplish anything they put their minds to. Listening/Speaking Part of the book talks about family trees. The students could listen to examples of family trees and then as an assignment find out their family trees at home. They could then bring their findings and share with the class. Genealogy Instruction for Beginners http://home.earthlink.net/~howardorjeff/instruct.htm Memory Catchers http://www.memorycatcher.com Reading The oath that each President has to take during inauguration was mentioned in the book. Students could compare and contrast the poems that Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, and Miller Williams wrote and read at past inaugurations. Robert Frost http://www.pbs.org/newshour/inauguration/history.html Maya Angelou http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/angelou.htm Miller Williams http://vcepolitics.com/usa/clinton/speeches/miller.shtml Writing Each student is assigned a different President that they will write about. They then, will present their paper to the class, being allowed to bring costumes, objects, music, and anything else that would illustrate their paper. Tells all about who is the current President http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/ Presidents http://odur.let.rug.nl/%7Escholing/usa/P/index.htm Social Studies Pair the students into groups of 2-3. Each group will choose one president and construct a timeline of events in his life. The timeline should start with the date he was elected until the last date he was in office. Presidential timeline http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/odmdhtml/pptime.html Historical Events http://memory.loc.gov/learn/orientation/time.html Science The book mentions that people are crazy about log-cabin Presidents. Have students build a log-cabin bird house. While creating the bird house talk about all the different types of birds in the region where they are living. Observe the birds that use the logcabin when finished. How to Build a Birdhouse http://www.monroe2boces.org/shared/esp/birdhouse.htm Bird Observation Data Sheet http://www-ed.fnal.gov/ntep/f98/projects/pnnl/canyonview/nsbird.html Mathematics The book discusses how Presidents came in all shapes and sizes. The students could get with a partner and measure each other. Then, compile all the class data. Convert their answers from feet to inches, to centimeters and so on. Conversion chart http://www.nerc.com/~victorco/measure.html Electronic conversion chart http://www.microimg.com/science/length.html Art/Music Make a comment on a President by showing political cartoons. Then, have the students draw their own cartoon or caricature. While the class is working on their cartoons they could sing patriotic songs. Political cartoons and cartoonists http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/pc_intro.html Patriotic songs http://hometown.aol.com/KidFun101/KidsParties4th/Pg10BPatrioti cSongs.index.html Special Activities Presidential quiz show Bring in a person from a pet store and go over pets that the Presidents had Role-play the Presidents Write the current President a letter Have a mock election Have a military person come in and speak to the class Additional Web Sites Web Presidents USA http://www.webpresidentsusa.com American President’s Life Portraits http://www.americanpresidents.org/ Virtual tour of White House http://www.nationalgeographic.com/feature s/96/whitehouse/whhome.html Children that lived in the White House http://www.nationalgeographic.com/feature s/96/whitehouse/world.html Literature Links Yo, Millard Fillmore (And All Those Other Presidents You Don't Know : And All Those Other Presidents You Don't Know Will Cleveland, et al / Millbrook Pr (T) / September 1997 Smithsonian Book of the First Ladies Doris Faber, et al / Henry Holt & Company, Inc. / April 1996 The Big Book of U.S. Presidents Victoria Sherrow, Bill Prosser (Illustrator) / Courage Books / August 1994 Eleanor Everywhere : The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt (Step into Reading (Library)) Monica Kulling, Cliff Spohn (Illustrator) / Random Library / March 1999 Lincoln : A Photobiography Russell Freedman / Clarion Books / September 1989