The Presidents Come to Life at Jefferson School
With coverage of the presidential primaries dominating new shows, students in Jefferson Primary School teacher Valerie Galanty’s third grade class are joining the rest of the nation this winter. The youngsters are learning about how candidates go about getting elected president and following the campaign on television and in the newspapers.
Students recently clipped out articles about the New Hampshire primary and discussed them. Class lessons and subsequent discussions centered on American presidents through our history and the different roles they have played during particular time periods. This helped students select a chief executive to research and report on.
Mrs. Galanty encouraged the class to choose a president that they didn’t know too much about so the other students could learn new facts during a later presentation. A week before the reports were due, the youngsters submitted an outline of their project and received feedback and advice.
A lesson on how to go about creating a bibliography provided one of the final touches to the unit. Students worked on their reports at home and in school. The finished products were typed on a computer and featured photos with captions.
Excitement reigned supreme on the day the reports were due. Many students arrived dressed as the president they studied. Some of the “presidents” that arrived at Jefferson were Richard M. Nixon, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Franklin Pierce. Eleanor Roosevelt paid a visit to speak about her husband, Franklin, as she was famous for doing seven decades ago!
One particularly imaginative young lady came wearing right, white and blue and carried a model of The White House. She discussed John Adams, the first resident of America’s presidential home.
Many students reported on presidential “fun facts” that captured the attention of classmates. For example, Ronald Reagan loved jelly beans, former first lady Barbara Bush is related to President Pierce, James Garfield was the first left-handed president, FDR was related to ten other presidents, President Wilson kept a flock of sheep on the White House lawn, Ulysses S. Grant’s favorite breakfast was a cucumber dipped in vinegar and President Nixon had to shave three times a day due to his heavy beard.
One third grader became so immersed in her research that she visited Theodore Roosevelt’s home at Sagamore Hill and included a photo of herself at the former president’s Oyster Bay estate in her report.
“This is the type of experience that these students will remember for years to come,” Huntington Superintendent John J. Finello said. “It makes learning exciting and fun.”
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