From The Lakes Of Minnesota, To The Hills Of Tennessee

We had such a good time celebrating memorial Day this year. I wanted the kiddos to really understand why we lived in such a great country and some of the symbols and people they should know.

We started off our week looking at a Smart Board presentation all about symbols of the United States. The first symbol we learned about was one we know very well since we say our Pledge of Allegiance every morning while our morning helper holds up the flag. The students were told the only supplies they could use were their fingers and glue to make the pieces of their flag. Tearing paper is a huge fine motor skill and helps develop the muscles necessary to hold writing utensils and write so we have been working on this skill a lot lately. We want those little fingers as strong as possible to make beautiful letters.

We learned that the Bald Eagle is the national bird of the U.S.A. They aren't really bald, but the white on their head makes it look like it is (the kiddos got a kick out of this. We used our fingers again to tear the paper for baldies head and we also worked on tracing our hands and cutting them out. Tracing will be a skill we continue to work on the next few weeks. 

One Important person we learned about was the first president of the United States names George Washington. We learned that he wore a wig and is on the quarter and the 1 dollar bill.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president and is on the penny and $5 dollar bill

For jobs this week we made a Unicorn U

 umbrella u's

 We added in the numbers 11-15 and used the numbers 1-15 to build a log cabin like Abraham Lincoln lived in when he was a boy. Next year we will be using popsicle sticks instead of cutting out the strips. This was one of those disastrous activities that are super cute and awesomely educational in theory, but completing them makes you want to run your nails down a chalkboard. The paper was to thin, the strips were to small and the numbers kept getting cut off, and we will never use paper again to complete this activity. I am sorry I put my babies through the horror of this activity and the flimsiest paper known tom man! 

And we continued working on beginning letter sounds. We have a super fun Smart Board activity that goes along with this and I am so proud of my friends for doing such an awesome job with this skill.

I can also proudly say we listened to Proud To Be An American by Lee greenwood a few times and may or may not have pantomimed the entire song and yes our children all think we are insane, but they love us and that is all that matters.