Friday, February 11, 2011

Activities for Abe Lincoln's Birthday

Learning About Abe Lincoln for Nannies and Au Pairs

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12th in 1809. President's Day, which is celebrated on the 3rd Monday in February, honors Lincoln and Washington. We recommend nannies and au pairs try share some of the following activities with their young charges in honor of Abraham Lincoln's birthday.

1. Make edible log cabins by using thickened frosting and pretzel sticks to make log cabins. You can also use graham crackers.

2. Use Lincoln Logs and make log cabins.

3. Use craft sticks and paste glue to make log cabins.

4. Make penny rubbings by putting a coin under a sheet of thin paper and rubbing it with the side of a crayon or pencil lead.

5. Read, The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln: -1906, The Life Of Abraham Lincoln For Boys And Girls, The Story of Abraham Lincoln, or this book of activities Abraham Lincoln for Kids: His Life and Times with 21 Activities.

6. Read the Gettysburg Address below. Remember why it's important to young kids? It was a short speech showing us quality is more important than quantity.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.

Please share your Abe Lincoln project ideas with other nannies and au pairs.

3 comments:

Heather said...

Only other thing I can think of are coloring pages and worksheets from learning websites. I love the edible log cabin idea!

Anonymous said...

Make a bracelet with 3 to 6 pennies. Cut a piece of clear contact paper and press in half enclosing the pennies. Adjust this bracelet to slip on the child's wrist.

Eva said...

I've made Abe Lincoln hats for the kids to wear. It is basically the same principal as a pilgrim hat.