Presidents' Day Crafts

We talked about presidents today, particularly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The kids learned about them when we went to Mt. Rushmore, but I just wanted to refresh their memories. For our crafts, I had seen a few president crafts that I liked (here and here) and so I kind of took what I liked from them, added a few of my own ideas, and came up with these:

As the kids were dropped off in the morning, I had them paint a small paper plate with peach paint. (Actually, it was white with a little orange mixed in.) They were all dry by the time we got together for art time. First they drew faces on with markers.

Then they had to choose if they wanted to make Washington or Lincoln. For Lincoln, I had black rectangles cut from construction paper. One was big and tall and the other was skinny. I also had black tissue paper squares and glue.

The kids glued the rectangles together to make a hat and then glued it to the top of the plate.

Then they scrunched up the tissue paper, dipped it in glue, and put it on the rim of the plate for Lincoln's hair and beard.

For Washington, I cut out small blue hats and strips of yellow paper. I also put out cotton balls for his hair.

The kids glued the hat to the top of the plate, then glued the yellow strip on. I trimmed them after they dried. Then they glued cotton balls to the sides of the plate.

Then I asked the kids what they would do if they were president and wrote it on a scroll (found here). Most of the kids didn't seem to understand the question, but I wrote their answers down anyway. Here is one of my favorites: What would you do if you were President?

Then I displayed them in the hall for everyone to see.

I wasn't planning on doing any crafts for Presidents' Day* and had only decided last night that I probably should. I wasn't sure I could get everything ready in time this morning, but it all worked out and I think they turned out pretty cute!

*I read several news articles today about how it isn't Presidents' Day, but rather Washington's Birthday, and how we should really only be celebrating and honoring George Washington. I never heard that before. Hmmm...

Mount Rushmore Heads

This week my class is taking a road trip across the United States. First stop: Mount Rushmore! I've been there myself, so I was able to bring in all my pictures. A girl in my class has also been there and she brought in her pictures as well. I taught the kids a little bit about the four presidents and then showed them what the craft would be. I got this idea from somewhere, but I have not been able to find that website again. I first found it about 4 or 5 years ago, so maybe it's no longer up. I wish I could find it to give proper credit, but I will show you our craft and maybe one of you will recognize it and can tell me where it's from.
First I found pictures of the four presidents that were highly pixelated so they'd resemble rock carvings. (At least to me they do.)

After printing them out, I taped them to construction paper to make them sturdy, then cut them out. The kids then had to decide which president they wanted to be, and then they colored the OTHER 3 presidents. (This was a little difficult to understand. "But I want to be Washington! Why can't I color Washington?" But they soon figured it out.)

I cut the middle out of paper plates, and stapled the president heads onto the plate in the correct order, using the plate as the "missing" president. Then the kids stuck their heads through the plate! Here's our Washington:

Our Jefferson:

Our Roosevelt:

And our Lincoln:

I also taped a craft stick onto the plate, but it was still pretty floppy. A jumbo craft stick would probably work better. We spent all day practicing the names of the presidents so the kids could go home and tell their parents!
I was planning on giving you the name of the website where I found the president heads, but that's no longer available, so I scanned mine in. I'm leaving them full size so you should be able to print them any size you want.