Since this week began with President's Day, it seemed a fitting time to study Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Some students had actually been there so were familiar with the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. After watching a short video of the construction of this monument, dedicated to four presidents who had an influential impact on the first 150 years of American history, students did a trivia activity and performed skills with various pieces of equipment. I chose some more unique information about the presidents like George Washington having his horse's teeth brushed each morning, or Teddy Roosevelt being blind in one eye from a boxing incident, and students had to guess which president I was describing. Once this was done, the children used various items for throwing, catching, dribbling, sliding, or rolling, to travel to the cone that had the correct president on it. They even shot baskets and did various exercises. There was also a card for Mount Rushmore and students moved to that cone if I was giving specific information about just the monument. It was fun! I'm hoping students are learning some new information about the presidents.
This child slid a bean bag to Mount Rushmore.
Students remembered to step in opposition when sliding the beanbag to Mount Rushmore.
Dribbling the spider ball like a soccer ball was what this student did when moving to Teddy Roosevelt.
After finding the correct president, this student moved to shoot a basket.
This student rolled an over-sized die to see how many jumping jacks she would perform at Mount Rushmore.
This student dribbled a ball up to George Washington.
