Celebrate Presidents’ Day

In the United States we celebrate a holiday called Presidents’ Day. There is a bit of confusion on where the apostrophe appears or doesn’t on this holiday. I am just going to stick with the way that I see most popularly used.

What is Presidents’ Day?

This holiday is celebrated once every year on the third Monday in February. It was first celebrated in 1885 to recognize the efforts of George Washington, the first American president. It was changed to the current date as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was a way to create more rest days for workers. Since then, it has evolved into remembering all the accomplishments of every American president across history.

Ideas to Celebrate Presidents’ Day

Here is a list of activities you can do with your students to celebrate Presidents’ Day this year.

Write a Letter to the President

I love using videos as  lesson hooks. Watch the video with your students.

Have your students draft a letter to the president and mail it. You can teach your students how to write a letter and address an envelope. Here are some prompt ideas for you to use with your kindergarten to second grade class:

1) If I had one wish, it would be… 

2) If I could change one thing about the world, it would be… 

3) If I could do one thing to help others, I would… 

4) If I were in charge of all the schools, I would make sure that all students learn about… 

5) One problem I’d like to fix is… I would fix it by…

Here is the address:

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Write a Play / Short Skit

Giving your students a chance to use their creativity and research skills is always one of my favorite activities! Students can research and create a skit about a president of their choice.

Read Books on Presidents’ Day

Here is a fun book,  I am George Washington to learn about George Washington. You can also search your library or get a book about the current president.

Learn About Money

In the United States, our money is printed with previous presidents on the currency. Have students learn the presidents on the money and an interesting fact about them. Sometimes it is good to have books about the presidents.

Hold a Trivia Game

If you are incorporating a research project about presidents for the month of February a fun way to end the project is by holding a trivia game. Each of your students can write a question on a card and the answer on the flip card. You can add this to a bulletin board or play it in the classroom.

The Cherry Tree Story

The cherry story isn’t a true story but I think it is such a great story to teach about honesty. I think as long as you tell your students that it is a fictional story you can still use it to help teach about honesty.

Presidents’ Day helps all of us appreciate the work the POTUS has done throughout history. There are many ways you can approach presidents day. Researching past presidents, learning about the current president and activities that help students understand the important job a president does. Which ever approach you take, I hope that this blog post gave you some ideas on activities you might want to do.

If you are interested, you can also get this Presidents’ Day George Washington FOCUS resource to supplement your lessons regarding this holiday. 

Any memorable Presidents’ Day stories you had with your students? Comment them down below.