Celebrating President's Day

Unsure of the origins of Presidents' Day, I ran a search and found a very helpful site, InfoPlease, which gave very interesting and in-depth information. According to a portion of their information, the third Monday in February (this year it's the 19th) is the Federal holiday known as Washington's Birthday and was created to celebrate only George Washington's birthday, which is actually February 22. InfoPlease went on to state that whether you celebrate President's Day or Washington's Birthday may depend on where you live. Washington's Birthday is a federal holiday, but states are not obliged to observe such holidays. Consequently, while the majority of states celebrate Washington's Birthday, there are about a dozen that celebrate President's Day, and several more celebrate Lincoln's Birthday as a separate holiday.

Having passed on that interesting bit of trivia, here are some ideas for celebrating President's Day.

• Preschool Rainbow offers a Preschool Holiday Art and Craft Activities page which includes three activities related to President's Day. One is especially simple: let the child use different coins to create pencil rubbings. Discuss the president pictured on the coin.
• Perpetual Preschool has many activities for President's Day including a fun yet simple coin toss game (intended to celebrate Lincoln's Birthday but could modify for Washington's birthday or President's Day). The President's Day Art page includes ideas for making wigs, painting cherry trees, creating Lincoln cabins using 8 oz. milk cartons and a penny, and creating simple silhouettes.
• Enchanted Learning, a site I had not previously visited, features a Activities, Worksheets, and Crafts for President's Day page that is chock full of useful ideas such as their easy-to-make Lincoln's Hat craft, George Washington, I Can... A Printable Book, Abraham Lincoln: A Printable Book, Washington Monument printout, and Mt. Rushmore printout.
• Preschool Express by Jean Warren offers a President's Day Theme page which includes ideas for art, counting, movement, science, music, and snack time.
• Apples 4 the Teacher offers seven printable George Washington short stories and twelve printable Abraham Lincoln short stories.
  

President's Day clipart courtesy of fotosearch.com

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Fun with counting and number recognition

Thank you, Angel, for e-mailing me and asking for these resources. I hope this is a help to you.


As always, Preschool Rainbow is a great resource. Their Counting Theme page features 16 games/activities to help with counting.

Printable counting and number recognition worksheets are available at Kid Zone and TLS Books, a site which offers more than 100 free printable preschool/kindergarten worksheets for all kinds of learning, including counting.

A to Z Teacher Stuff is an incredible site that offers free teacher resources, lesson plans, themes, Tips, printables, and more. Their resources include ideas for all grades: pre-K through 12th. Visit their Preschool Lesson Plans page to choose from several different categories including Math. The Kindergarten Lesson Plans page includes a Math link as well. Some of my favorite preschool numbers and counting related ideas are the number book, Cheerios necklace, bean sorting/counting game, Cheeto Walk, and the Number Song - a counting variation of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

DLTK's Growing Together is another site to which I often refer. Their Number Buddies page includes printable worksheets, fun games, and cute crafts, all designed to help your child recognize numbers and learn to count in a variety of ways (1's, 2's, 5's, etc.). At the bottom of the page, they even offer links to other numbers/math sites.

One last bit of advice: since children learn most when they enjoy what they are learning, make learning into a game.

clip art of number courtesy of fotosearch.com

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Automobile activities

Riding in the car with children need not be a trial of endurance; instead, it can be a fun and an educational time by taking the opportunity to play some family travel games for the road. Here are a few ideas to keep your children occupied.

• If your child recognizes letters, have him watch for those letters while looking out the window. Play a variation of "I Spy."
• The same idea works well with colors and numbers. You can even play along yourself to help your child recognize colors, numbers, and letters.
• Sing a silly song: "Old MacDonald" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" are two of my children's favorites along with "Bicycle Built for Two" and "Surrey with the Fringe on Top." (Aren't those last two a blast from the long-forgotten past? My children learned them from the Veggie Tales Sing-Alongs: On the Road with Bob and Larry CD, and when I researched to find the links to the lyrics I discovered that the Veggie Tales CD features abbreviated versions of both songs.) NOTE: Please do not take these comments as an unqualified endorsement of the Veggie Tales products.
  
• Bring books for reading and quiet entertainment.
• Purchase some of their favorite stories on CD. This is another activity that keeps the children quiet. My children love the Alice in Wonderland audio book I purchased at Dollar Tree. I want to get the Peter Pan audio book as well. My oldest girl was given a CD/book set of one of the Curious George books.
  

How do you keep your children entertained while running errands or taking a trip?

photo of Veggie Tales CD cover courtesy of BigIdea.com
clipart courtesy of fotosearch.com

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Dollar Tree Stores deals

"Dollar stores" abound in our town as I am sure they do in yours. While there are plenty of low-quality goods to avoid purchasing at all costs, you can also find great bargains. Our Dollar Tree offers workbooks and flash cards for preschool through 3rd grade. My oldest daughter fell in love with the Winnie-the-Pooh, Disney Princess, and Barbie Doll workbooks. There are also Bob the Builder books and flash cards for the boys, and although I can't remember the exact character, I know there are other popular-with-boys character workbooks. My daughter is currently working in the Winnie-the-Pooh Colors and Shapes, ABC's, and 1-2-3's books. If I were to purchase these workbooks elsewhere, I would certainly pay at least $4 per book, four times what I pay at Dollar Tree.

Where do you like to go to find bargains on educational materials?

photo courtesy of National Guardian Security Services

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