Presidents Day for Kids

Presidents Day is an American holiday to honor and remember the leaders of the nation. It’s a combination of the celebrations for the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom were born in February. While they are the emphasis, it’s a time to celebrate other people who have been president as well.

123 Homeschool 4 Me has a mini unit on Presidents Day that includes a worksheet for kids to design a new coin, write about what they would do as president and explore who they would add to Mount Rushmore.

Kindergarten Creations has a writing activity for kids to write what they would do if they were president, complete with a cute photo of the kid decorated in the style of Washington or Lincoln. Older kids can write more than younger ones but this is a fun activity for a range of ages.

Get free printable worksheets about Abraham Lincoln from The Purposeful Nest.

Do a little Presidents Day STEM by cleaning some coins with guidance from the US Mint. Speaking of coins, you can also do coin rubbings or make patterns with coins (or do math with coins, for that matter!). These and other ideas are on the list from The Educator’s Spin on It.

Learn a bit about some of the favorite foods of the presidents from Make and Takes, and maybe make a presidential inspired snack. (Fun fact: Joe Biden loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.)

You can also read books about the presidents or do presidential Mad Libs. A few good books with general information about the presidents include A Kid’s Guide to U.S. Presidents, Facts and Stories about the Presidents of the United States of America for Curious Kids and Our Country’s Presidents, which is a National Geographic book.

Older kids can learn about the qualifications to be president and host a mock election campaign (also great for 2024 as I write this because it’s an election year).

I don’t know why Pinterest just suddenly decided I needed to see all the content about task cards and task boxes for kids, but these ideas are great for the classroom to keep in centers or have on hand for early finishers. You can also use them at home as quiet bags or boxes for kids to use when younger siblings might be sleeping, or in the car for a non-screen activity.

Let’s take a look at some fine motor skill task cards and how you can use them to teach kids skills while they play.

Pre-K Pages has a nice set of playdough task cards you can use in boxes or bags with a little tray (or they can just work on the table if they are sitting at a table). Working with clay or play dough is a great fine motor skill exercise, or you can add these to your playdough center if you have one to give them a little bit of direction while they work.

Teaching Mama has a bunch of great ideas for fine motor task boxes, from practicing working a glue bottle to threading beads, using clothespins or scissors, dropping water, finger painting and more. There’s a free printable that shows all the task options she talks through in the post if you want to make your own little boxes, or just keep these ideas on hand when you’re ready to add some fine motor fun to your days.

One of the ideas she mentions in that post is working with a hole punch, and Early Learning Ideas has a whole bunch (the urge to write “hole bunch” is strong) of ideas for printables that help kids practice hole punching, whether it’s a strip with circles on it for them to punch or pictures that include circles for punching, these ideas make it a little more fun to practice this important skill.

My Happy Place Teaching has a whole post about using fine motor task boxes in kindergarten, and her paid resource includes more than 100 task ideas with printables. But if you don’t need 100 boxes you can still get some good ideas from this post about different tasks to include and why and when you can use them. She also mentions using them in the morning while you’re busy with kids coming in at different times, which is a great idea.

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