Hi everyone, it's Becky! I wanted to take a moment to share a President's Day/Week experience that opened the eyes of my first graders and showed them a side of George Washington that the elementary-friendly first grade books don't show you. 

Let me backtrack a few days before President's Day. Greg and I were talking at home about the books I would be reading to my kids, and he mentioned how the famous picture of George Washington commanding the boat across the Potomac River is not accurate. He told me in reality George Washington was riding under a blanket  (They were crossing during a nor'easter!) This makes much more sense than Emanuel Leutze's 1851 portrayal of Washington, standing erect, guiding the troops in the middle of the night, right?! Why in the world would the commander in chief make himself vulnerable during such a monumental moment? I don't know about you, but I never thought about this before! (It's times like this that make it handy to be married to a social studies teacher!) 

So, fast forward to a few days later to my classroom when I was reading one of our George Washington books, and we came to a cartoon version of that famous picture. I talked to my students about its inaccuracy. It also made sense to them as to why he would not be standing on the boat, but then I also had a sense that their little hearts were a bit crushed. "So he really wasn't brave?" one of my kiddos sadly asked. I responded by saying that he was still a very brave man, and that moment should not make us thing differently, it should show us that he was smart! But then something magical happened…another one asked, "How did they even know that he didn't stand like that on the boat?" This was PERFECT! I then reminded them about Primary Sources, which we learned about through our introductory Primary Source unit we did earlier in the year. 

I couldn't have planned the conversation better myself! We came to the conclusion that George Washington and the soldiers most likely wrote in journals about the experience! My kids were excited that they knew a fact most others do not know about George Washington.

I came home a little worried that maybe I crushed their idealistic views of George Washington, and when I shared my conversation with Greg, he was able to find me a fantastic excerpt from a book about young GW and how brave he really was. This excerpt, from the book The Many Faces of George Washington, by Carla Kilough McClafferty, explained how young George volunteered to traveled from Williamsburg, VA to the Ohio River Valley (Western PA) to deliver a letter to French troops, and also bring a response back to Williamsburg. 

My kids couldn't believe all of the things GW had to do on his voyage! They couldn't imagine that this same clever guy became our first president! (I did have to simplify the reading a bit and explain some of the things that were happening since it is meant from intermediate students. My kids thought they were big stuff listening to this!) So, alas, after reading this excerpt, my kids overwhelmingly agreed that our dear George Washington truly was a brave man! I also loved how the end of the excerpt noted that the journals GW kept on his voyage were eventually published. My kids quickly put it all together and stated that his journals were the primary source that gave us this information.

I hope this bit of information finds its way to your kiddos! Even in first grade, my kids loved learning something new and different about George Washington! I also wanted to share that we are taking part in the Teachers Are Heroes TPT Sale on February 25! Our The Class Couple TPT store will be 20% off, and you can use the Promo Code "HEROES" to save 28%!

Happy Shopping!

As the husband of a first grade teacher, I’ve come understand the classroom priorities for elementary teachers. For the vast majority of you - social studies is the low man on the educational totem pole. And by that, I mean you’re lucky if you get it in. In first grade especially, there is a large emphasis on learning how to read and complete math facts that little time is left over for anything else. So when teachers have an opportunity to integrate social studies - it usually aligns with a holiday or reinforces trivial information. (Honestly, it’s no fault of any elementary teacher!) There needs to be a discussion that shifts the focus of social studies away from fact mining and towards informational text analysis and critical thinking. Here is an example.

In Pennsylvania, third or fourth grade classes talk about the basic facts of our state. (I’m sure that many states have similar requirements.) Since time is a priority, most teachers focus on the facts - William Penn, Penn’s Woods, the state bird, state flower, state animal, etc. Other facts could be peppered in to reinforce informational text writing and non-fiction reading. So the result may be something like this:

I know this may be an exaggeration, but you get the point. We’re rarely pushing primary students creatively in the social sciences. Therefore, they’re instilled with the belief that social studies and history are simply a reiteration of facts. 

This is where primary sources could be a dynamic way to promote a deeper understanding of the social studies while also building their critical thinking and questioning skills. For those of you that don’t know, “A primary source is a document or physical object which was written or created during the time under study” (Princeton University Reference Desk). Primary sources can be a wide array of things - from photographs or art to furniture or clothing. (Start with the Library of Congress if you’re looking for primary sources to include in your instruction.)

So, let’s go back to our discussion on Pennsylvania history. What if you started the Pennsylvania unit with this photo from 1890? What questions might students generate?

How many trees is that?
Who cut them down?
Where did all of those trees come from?

You could then explain that when William Penn first signed the charter for Pennsylvania (Penn’s Woods), over 90% of the state was covered in trees. What would William Penn think about his land now? Why did a state so rich in timber cut down almost all of its forests by 1890 - the year of the picture above? That could lead to a completely new discussion on people’s interaction with the environment. For example, a student might ask - If they cut down all of the trees, what happened to the animals? That would be an appropriate segue way the introduction of the white-tailed deer as the state animal. (It might also be interesting to note - the white-tailed deer population in the state dropped to near endangered levels in the late 1800s. So much so, the state had a repopulation effort beginning in 1906 that brought in deer from other states.) Again, this fact could be supported by primary sources to promote engaging discussion.

I digress. The fact of the matter is, primary sources create a dynamic way for students to critically think, read, and write about the social studies. If you’re looking for a way to introduce it to students in the primary grades, check out our product on Becky’s TPT Store.

Best.