What You Didn't Know About George Washington

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!