Learning about the Presidents for Presidents Day

While Presidents Day is in February because of the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, it’s really meant to be a holiday that represents all presidents, so it’s a great time for kids to learn about different presidents, especially those they might not have heard of or learned much about before.

Of course between the Internet and good reference books it’s easy to research all the presidents these days, but it can be a little harder to find activities related to lesser know presidents.

Kids Activity Zone has a free printable bundle with a worksheet for every president. There’s a cartoony drawing on them and space to fill in their dates of birth and death, when they served as president, what party they were in and some information about their early life and education as well as what they did as president.

By the way, the White House website has good brief presidential biographies if you don’t want kids to just search online. Or you can use the biographies at National Geographic Kids, but it doesn’t include all of the presidents.

I also like these Presidents Day pennants from The Little Ladybug Shop at Teachers Pay Teachers. This more than 100 page download includes pennant shaped pages for each president where kids can fill in their basic information, life events, achievements and quotes. There’s also a blank option where kids can write in and draw their own picture of the president they are studying.

There’s also a Presidents Day banner report printable from Tied 2 Teaching at Teachers Pay Teachers, either of which would be great for older elementary/middle school kids. This one includes fact sheets for each of the presidents as well as a three-part printable kids can fill in, color and assemble. This includes the president’s face, a section for fast facts and a portion for writing about their achievements, challenges and other facts. (The text says 45 presidents so I’m not sure it was updated to include Joe Biden.)

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

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