A Kindergarten Birthday Party for Abraham Lincoln!

Did you know that there have been more books written about Abraham Lincoln than any other person in world history?  This is the sort of fact that our kindergarteners LOVE to know: the BIGGEST, the TALLEST, the MOST always gets the attention of young children, doesn't it?

Until the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth in 2009, there were very few books that I considered "kindergarten-friendly."  But now there are many to choose from!  My favorite is this book by Jim Aylesworth, Our Abe Lincoln.

One of the reasons that I like Our Abe Lincoln  is that it is a song book. Although I don't have the best singing voice, I'm not shy about singing aloud with my kindergarteners! The tune is catchy and my kindergarteners love to join in my singing.  In fact, they walk around all day singing verses from the book:

Wise Abe Lincoln said, "No More!" to slavery,

"No More!" to slavery,

"No More!" to slavery,

Wise Abe Lincoln said, "No More!" to slavery,

Many brave days ago.

Thoughtful teachers wonder whether or not to explain slavery (and war and assassination) to young children, and then how to do so.  As with all difficult subjects, I think it is best to wait for children to ask questions and then answer them simply.  The illustrations in this book lend themselves to simple explanations.  For example, in the picture that accompanies the above verse, President Lincoln appears to be protecting a group of people from a bossy-looking, fancily dressed gentleman.  With 5 and 6 year olds, it may be enough to explain that Lincoln did not want to see anyone force other people to do things for them.

I read 3 pages a day for 4 days.  As we finish each page, we do some shared writing on a chart that looks like this:

And then students have a chance to copy and illustrate the sentences of their choosing into a booklet with pages that look like this:

If you are not comfortable explaining hard issues to young children, there are so many fun stories about Abraham Lincoln that can be shared in the days leading up to the birthday celebration.  These books are all very good read-alouds with kindergarteners:

As I did with our birthday party honoring Martin Luther King, I announce the upcoming event by posting a picture of the American hero on the classroom calendar.  Then, I share with the students the fact that Abraham Lincoln carried notes around inside his tall, stovepipe hat.  After that, I pass out the invitations in little construction paper hats that I've made for each of them.

I don't read this book to kindergarteners but I do hold it up while sharing the story.

Our shared reading the week before the party is always a poem about Abraham Lincoln. I have found a variety of poems over the years.  Here are two:

And you can grab the one I am currently using here.  

I also teach the children a sweet little song that I found years ago.

The Party

Before the party, the boys cut and glue stovepipe hat shapes and beards to sentence strips.  The girls draw flowers on simple construction paper bonnets with calico ribbon ties.  You can grab the pattern for the boys' hats right here.  The pattern for the beard is here, too.You can see how the girls' bonnets are made by looking at my earlier post on The First Thanksgiving so just click right here.

I allot about an hour for the party with a 15- minute presentation at the beginning, four 7-8 minute center activities, and 10 minutes to make and eat the birthday treat.

There are usually a few parents, grandparents, and younger siblings who attend the party.  This year, I was especially honored to host our principal and a colleague who is also a "lover of all things Lincoln!"  After greeting our guests, we recite our poem, sing our song, and some children may read aloud a fact from their booklets about Abraham Lincoln.

There are 4 game tables set up for the party and the children and our guests circulate around the tables, enjoying the activities.

Penny Drop: Kids take turns kneeling on a chair and try dropping 5 pennies in a tall container.
They color the number of successes on a 100 chart.  It's fun to see how many pennies are dropped in the jar
 in total.

Heads or Tails: Students gently toss a penny and graph the results.

Hats:  A post it note is stuck to the back of one of the hats.  Students take turns reading the numbers and turning over the hats until they find the one with the note saying "Win!'  They turn their backs while an adult or another student changes the location of the "Win!" note and play again and again.

Lincoln Logs:  What a great example of how we honor the memory of our 16th president!
And ,after introducing the toy at the party, it makes a lot of sense to add Lincoln Logs to an engineering center .

After the games, we regather to sing Happy Birthday to Abraham Lincoln.  I have birthday candles in red, white and blue.  The blue candles stand for the centuries (2), the red would stand for the decades but there are currently zero (0), and the white are for the single years (9.)  This year is the 209th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln!  

Back at their tables, the children use a plastic knife to put a small dab of chocolate frosting on a round chocolate cookie.  Then they stick a Little Debbie Swiss Roll (or a HoHo) on the frosting.  The effect is that of a stovepipe hat and the taste is, well, delicious!

I hope you try celebrating Abraham Lincoln's birthday.  It's educational, fun, and proudly American.