Presidents day

For Presidents day, we started by reading the second article of the Constitution describing the duties of the President including serving as Commander-in-Chief of the military and appointing officials to serve as ambassadors and judges.  We talked about how it is the Executive Branch's job to enforce the laws created by the Legislative Branch, like police officers enforce the laws locally.  We saw some police officers and EMTs in action this week, so she reminded me of what they do.  She's also very proud to identify some of her friends' parents with these jobs.

We read books about several past Presidents.  Her favorite was President Taft is Stuck in the Bath.  The pictures make him look adequately angry and it is a great lesson in problem solving, as well as silliness.  It offers some historical context at the end of the book, as many of these stories do.  Dear Mr. Washington was the humorous tale of some children witnessing George Washington getting his portrait painted, and behaving as children often do in an attempt to make him smile.  It includes some rules for polite behavior Washington was said to have copied as a child.  I first picked up John, Paul, George and Ben because I had to do a double-take, as I thought at first it was about the Beetles, but realized the fourth name was incorrect.  Lane Smith worked on some other books I'd enjoyed as a child, like the Stinky Cheese Man, so I thought I would give it a try.  It gives a great little story for John Hancock, Paul Revere, George Washington, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and talks about their role in the Revolutionary War, with some true and false questions at the end.  I like the idea of Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek, about how a small act you perform as a child may have greater consequences than you could ever guess, but the storytelling wasn't great.

Since we were reading history books this week, we stayed on a Social Studies track with our activities.  We explored a map, identifying the state we live in, the states grandmas and grandpas live in, and some of the places mommy and daddy have visited.  She painted her own map, and then created one out of clay, to show mountains and lakes.  We read another book she really loves, The Scrambled States of America.  We looked through family photos and discussed past events in our lives.  We also created a new activity calendar, as our felt one was getting old.  We used a pocket calendar like many schools use, and used index cards to create pictures of the things we might do every day.  Then she helps to decide what to do and sets them in order in the pockets. We had a lot of fun exploring different denominations of money, looking at the Presidents and others on each one.