First graders have been getting ready for Presidents’ Day by learning about two great American presidents, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Students read about Abe Lincoln and shared their ideas as to what makes someone a good leader. Exploring features of nonfiction texts, students discussed maps, as they examined a map in the book depicting the United States in 1861. Practicing reading comprehension skills, students also focused on identifying cause and effect relationships. We defined the cause as the reason something happened and the effect as the event that happened. First graders worked independently to determine cause and effect relationships relating to Lincoln and the Civil War. Next, as they read about George Washington, first graders further discussed the president’s job. In this text, we explored nonfiction features of both lists and diagrams. After reading, students practiced the comprehension skill of sequencing by ordering the events in George Washington’s path to becoming our first president. Finally, next week, we will bridge math and language skills as first graders will use Venn Diagrams to write a compare and contrast piece on these two presidents.
