Kids Activities for Presidents’ Day

Presidents’ Day is a strange holiday. Doesn’t it seem like every president should get their own special day, just for having gotten to be president?

Presidents’ Day corresponds basically to Washington’s birthday (though Lincoln’s birthday is in February, too), and is a day we commemorate, remember and learn about our presidents.

There are lots of different learning activities for Presidents’ Day. You can find books about at least some of the presidents for any grade level, or for little kids read books like Duck for President to talk about the fact that we have presidents who we vote for.

Older kids can research and learn about specific presidents, or try out some of these fun activities collected from around the web.

Free Presidents’ Day printable activity pack — Amy Lemons/Teachers Pay Teachers — craft ideas, tables and letter/word activities

Presidents’ Day learning center binder — Cortney Johnson/Teachers Pay Teachers — free printable activities including a coin toss game, drawing monuments and president flash cards (not updated for this year, but still really great)

Presidents’ Day activities — Education World — has a good timeline of the evolution of the holiday, as well as activity suggestions for all grades

Montessori-inspired Presidents’ Day activities — Living Montessori Now — spell Washington, count the numbers of the presidents, timelines and more all made with free printables

Presidents’ Day Homeschool — Simple Little Home — a variety of activities for little kids

Make your own coin design — MPM Ideas

Polishing coins — Teach Mama

If I were president writing printable — Ginger Snap Treats for Teachers — there are lots of these out there if you prefer one with more space, without lines, etc.

Log cabin craft — Toddling in the Fast Lane — made with cardboard rolls

Lincoln’s hat craft — Deceptively Educational

Presidents’ Day crafts — DLTK Kids — some general presidental stuff and specific crafts for Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Trump

Presidents’ Day word search — Newspapers in Education

Presidents’ Day memory game — Primary Inspiration

Do you do anything special to learn about Presidents’ Day or specific presidents? I’d love to hear about it.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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