This unit took only two weeks.  We simply read a book everyday about past presidents, being the president, the White House and Washington D.C.  Each kiddo had to choose five presidents to research and complete a project about each one.  At the end of the two weeks, they presented their projects – short, sweet and simple for me!

They were able to choose from the following project choices:

• a file folder report
• a photographic poster
• a sculpture and mini-report
• a cereal box report
• a newspaper article
• a mobile

I gave them very little direction in completing projects this time around.  After the presentations, we talked about each project and the good points.  We also evaluated what could’ve been better.  My children were pretty hard on themselves – harder than I would’ve been!  But, it was good for them to notice what they might improve on next time.

On to the projects…

Below are the unit resources that have been in my sidebar just in case anyone’s interested in a study of the presidents in the future.
Presidents of the United States

Coloring Pages of the Presidents

Presidential Hangman

Free Online Resources

Games to Learn States, Capitals and Landforms

Various US Geography Games

Where Is That? Game

Game that Promotes Speed in Recognizing States

We took some time to learn about famous national landmaks during the US Geography unit, too.  For a final project, I gave the kids a list of several landmarks from which they had to choose eight to research.  They created informational postcards to highlight what they learned.  You can see the front of each postcard shows a picture and the name of the landmark.  On the back, they had to write a paragraph of interesting information for each.  It was a simple project, but a nice way to ease into the new year.