How to Get Kindergarteners Interested in History

Today is George Washington's birthday, his 286th!  Readers of this blog know that I love history and also that I am something of a "party girl!"  I have written posts about how we celebrate the birthdays of Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln in my classroom.  Check out the links below, if you are interested!

A Kindergarten Birthday Party for Martin Luther King
A Kindergarten Birthday Party for Abraham Lincoln

In the past, I would honor George Washington with a special birthday party, as well.  I would dress up as Martha Washington, do my best imitation of a Southern accent, and teach my students about "my deah husband, George."  I would express astonishment over the modern attire of little girls, the existence of crayons and glue sticks, everyone's (lack of) manners, and--of course--all things technological!  I kept up the act ALL DAY LONG and the children and much of the staff really seemed to enjoy it.  It was exhilarating and I highly recommend you try it if you have any theatrical proclivities and are at least 10 years younger than I am...

I also used to share some stories about George Washington that are probably myths: stories about George and the cherry tree, George tossing a silver coin across the Potomac River, and George engaged in the "sport" of fox hunting.  Each story was followed by a related game which generations of my students loved.  For example, they would take turns tossing a quarter across a "river'" marked by two lines of tape on the floor.  However, at some point, I realized that I wanted my students to understand that George Washington was a real, true person and so I stopped perpetrating these myths.

The trouble nowadays is that there are hardly any kindergarten-friendly books about George Washington!  This is the main one that I shared this year:

That's my right-hand man, Reader Rabbit, holding up the book.
Reader Rabbit introduces ALL of the books I read aloud to my students.

I also read and sang Yankee Doodle illustrated by Patti Goodnow.  Few children are familiar with this tune and it's nice to expose them to some Americana.

The Scholastic website has back issues on George Washington and videos and games, too.

I found a few YouTube videos which my class really liked.  The first two are OLD Sesame Street videos about the crossing of the Delaware.  The third is a read-aloud of George Washington's Teeth.  I like that it ties-in with Dental Health month!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGdubHSIyQo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df7kUedWwn8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArPE-Kvs0K0

Over the years, I have written a couple of poems about George Washington which we study during our daily shared reading times.  If you want to understand how I use a weekly poem to develop reading skills, please click right here ! And you are welcome to grab copies of the poems by clicking
here or here !

This year, we kicked off our study with a very cute art project which I adapted from several I found on Pinterest.  I precut all the pieces so this became a quick 10-15 minute "following directions" activity for the students (and an hour-long cutting project for me.) 

I then devoted three read-aloud sessions to George Washington, focusing on his childhood, his soldiering, and his presidency.  We would read, recall key details and record them on a class chart, and then individual students would copy and illustrate their favorite facts. I tacked up another page of each child's writing below his/her art project daily.  The bulletin board was very colorful and impressive!

I stapled all the fact sheets to the bottom of each child's G.W. portrait
when it was time to take home these delightful projects,

On the second day of our George Washington lessons, I felt very rewarded for my efforts.  Two little girls each brought in books from home about our first president.  They were very proud about sharing and I felt happy that I'd instilled an interest in history in their lives.  And one little boy drew his first EVER recognizable picture of a person; it was George Washington crossing the icy Delaware.  You just never know what will excite a student to learn!

I am so thrilled that this student has finally drawn a recognizable picture!