Montessori-Inspired Presidents' Day Activities Using Free Printables

By Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now 

Happy Presidents' Day Weekend if you live in the USA! Today, I want to share ideas for Montessori-inspired Presidents' Day activities that use some great free printables I found online. If you live in another country, you could prepare similar activities to celebrate your country's leaders through the years.

The hands-on activities are for preschoolers through first graders. Often, Presidents' Day activities are best suited for kindergarten on up, although a number of activities can be adapted for preschoolers as well. You might want to create a mini Presidents' Day unit, or study presidents for the rest of the month.

You'll find many more activities for preschoolers through first graders throughout the year along with presentation ideas in my previous posts at PreK + K Sharing. You can find them easily in this post at Living Montessori Now: More Than a Year's Worth of Freebies and Montessori-Inspired Activities.

Presidents' Day Number Order and Skip Counting Puzzles 

For this activity, I used the President's Day Number Order and Skip Counting Puzzles from Gracehopper Learning. There are 10 different president-related puzzles in this printable. For younger preschoolers, you can leave the numbers attached to the puzzle and use a 1-10 or 11-20 puzzle. 

In the example, I used skip counting puzzles of President Obama, Mount Rushmore, and the Oval Office.

For older or more-advanced preschoolers, you can use the skip counting puzzles with the numbers separated from the puzzles as shown. In the tray I prepared, I used an inexpensive wooden tray from the craft store and pencil boxes to hold the puzzle pieces.

You'll notice that I have separate containers for the numbers. I like to use small containers to organize trays whenever possible. Just as an organized environment and organized shelves help children develop an internal sense of order, organized trays also help children develop a greater sense of order.
 
Presidents' Day Word Fun 
 

Presidents' Day Word Fun for Kindergarten by Melissa Williams at Teachers Pay Teachers made it easy to create this tray. Younger preschoolers could just match the letters to the words. Advanced preschoolers through first graders could see how many words they could create with the letters. 

Presidents Matching Activity, Number Order Activity, and Golden Bead Activity 

For this set of activities, I used the president cards from Happy Birthday George! (A Presidents' Day Learning Center Binder) by Cortney Bystrom from Once Upon a Substitute. A matching tray like the one above could be used for younger preschoolers. It could be used for either a matching activity or a concentration game. 

The tray is a clear acrylic tray from Montessori Services. While older preschoolers could match all the president cards, younger children could be given a tray with just a few of the most well-known presidents.

Another tray could be created to emphasize the order of the presidents and Montessori golden bead work. For this, you'll need the same president cards (one set only) and 4 ten bars and 9 units (or bead bars for 1-9).

This activity would work well with one child or a small group. Above is a possible layout for the president cards. I used a small work rug from Montessori Services for the layout.

After the president cards are laid out, you could ask the child (or take turns asking different children) to find a specific president. Give a clue about the president's number if the child can't find the president. Then ask the child to match the beads to the president's number.

Check out my DIY Bead Bars post for links to lots of ideas for making your own bead bars and links to presentations for teens and tens that can be adapted. If you have another manipulative for place value, you could use that in place of the Montessori beads.

Presidents' Day Mini Books 

 

I used Presidents' Day Mini Books from Ready-Set-Read! to easily prepare a Presidents' Day mini books tray. Younger children can just use this as a cut-and-staple activity. Older children will have a mini book to read as well.

Washington and Lincoln Timelines

 

For this activity, I used Presidential Timelines from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational. Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational used 2 5-gallon paint sticks to prepare the activity.

To save space, I used two ribbons covered with sticky-back Velcro strips. After printing out, laminating, and cutting out the timeline pieces, I added the corresponding type of sticky back Velcro pieces to each of the timelines.

Paper clips kept the rolled-up ribbons together on the tray. I used a medium-size tray from Montessori services and two glass candle coasters for the timeline pieces. 

It would be helpful to read biographies about Washington and Lincoln before doing the activity. It would generally be best for kindergarten or first grade, although preschoolers could participate by listening to the biography and sticking on the timeline pieces.

More Free Printables for Presidents' Day

Go to my post at Living Montessori Now for links to more free Presidents' Day freebies: Free Presidents' Day Printables and Montessori-Inspired Presidents' Day Activities.

More Montessori-Inspired Presidents' Day Activities

For more Montessori-inspired Presidents' Day activities, check out this post with lots of activities and a link to my Kids' Presidents' Day Pinterest Board: Montessori-Inspired Presidents' Day Activities. If you'd like ideas for calendar-based themes throughout February, see February Themed Activities for Kids. 

Happy weekend!

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in Colorado Springs with her husband of 37 years and their cat of 11 years. She blogs at Living Montessori Now. Linked to Tuesday Tots, Tactile Tuesday, The Mommy Club Resources and Solutions at Milk and Cuddles and Crystal & Co. Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop, The Weekly Kid’s Co-op, Living Life Intentionally Linky Party, Preschool Corner, Sharing Saturday, Saturday Show & Tell, Show-and-Share Saturday, The Sunday Showcase, Link & Learn, and Afterschool Express. 

This post contains affiliate links for Montessori Services.