Presidents' Day {Thinking Maps!}

Oh my word! Is time flying for anyone else? President’s Day is RIGHT around the corner. We will be enjoying President’s Day with a mid-winter break! Ya-hooo!

We’re working to CRAM in some Presidents wherever we can. In my case, I’m doing a little bit of those“cross curricular” writing opportunities. Plus, I appreciate the two-birds-one-stone of it all!

Our district’s “year at a glance” calls for us to dedicate February and some of November to non-fiction writing. We’re still early in the process, so there’s a lot of scaffolding in these activities – especially for my first grade friends.

We’ll be reading each of these books this week. I’m not sure if you can tell, but I swiped them from the biography section of our school’s library. Cost: FREE!

 A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln & A Picture Book of George Washington

By: David A. Alder / Illustrated by: John & Alexandra Wallace

While we're reading them, we're keeping track of our learning on an anchor chart. (I lack the artistic skills of one babblying artist)

Regular anchor chart with questionable visual/spatial reasoning. 

We used our “research” to complete a tree map with what we learned.

At the end of the week my firsties will choose their favorite president and make up one of these babies with a published piece of writing – featuring their research. I wish I could tell you where this template came from – But, I adopted my classroom from a retiree and this was left in her files!

My second graders, however, did this project last year (which they reminded me of A LOT today). So… they’re going to use the Double Bubble to compare the presidents. These kiddos will end the week with a compare/contrast piece featuring both presidents. I’m sure they’ll love the more involved writing J!

Here are the Thinking Maps we're cranking out this week!

Download Includes:

* Cut & Paste George Washington Circle Map

* Cut & Paste Abraham Lincoln Circle Map

* Fill in the blank Circle Map/ George (For my second graders)

* Fill in the blank Circle Map/ Abe (For my second Graders)

* Blank Tree Map

* Double Bubble Circle Map 

Enjoy your Wednesday night!