Lesson 1



Title: Just Imagine: living with Lincoln in the 1800’s                                    

Level: Third Grade Time: 40 minutes                                                        

Broad Goal: My students will appreciate the difficulties Abraham Lincoln experienced as a child.  My students will know the differences in the life style of a child growing up on the frontier in the 1800’s and a child growing up today.
  
National Standard:  II Time, Continuity, Change c. compare and contrast different stories or accounts about past events, people, places or situations, identifying how they contribute to our understanding of the past.

State Standard: 16.A.2c.  Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic documents, images and other literary and nonliterary sources.

Lesson Objective: My third grade social study students will complete a worksheet identifying events in Abraham Lincoln’s childhood with complete accuracy

Materials: paper, pencils, colored pencils, construction paper, yarn or string

Resources:  Books:  

McGovern, Ann (1992). If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln
            New York, NY: Scholastic
Freedman, Russell (1987). Lincoln A Photo Biography
            New York, NY: Clarion Books
Winters,Kay (2003). Abe Lincoln the Boy Who Loved Books
            New York, NY: Simon and Schuster
http://www.worldwideschool.com/library/books/hst/biography/TheBoysLifeofAbrahamLincoln/Chap1.html
http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/?gclid=CKri3cy2nJECFQGdPAodUjYYOQ
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/presidents-day/abraham-lincoln/kids-biography/the-kentucky-home.html http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.alincolnlearning.us/KnobCreekBoyhoodFarm-Cabin-Ky.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.alincolnlearning.us/birthplace.html&h=480&w=640&sz=23&hl=en&start=14&tbnid=o89V2Zurj9HjbM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAbraham%2BLincoln%2527s%2Bhome%2Bin%2BPigeon%2BCreek%2BIndiana%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DX

Focusing Activity:    I want the students to have an idea of what is was like to grow up during Abraham Lincoln’s  time  and gain appreciation of what childhood was like for Abraham Lincoln.   I will have the students do a comparison of their lives to Lincoln’s life as a child.  

Purpose:  The students will gain an appreciation of the struggles that Abraham Lincoln lived through as a child and come to an understanding that no matter where our lives begin with hard work and determination they too may reach any goal they desire.

Content Knowledge:  I will have a just imagine conversation with my students.   I would ask them, “What is one thing you could not imagine living without?” Just imagine living without these items no cell phones, no play stations, game cube, Nintendo, television, no electricity…

Winter time is a good time to have discussions about the poor conditions Lincoln lived through. Just imagine living without a furnace to keep us warm in the winter.

As we have these discussions we will list the items that rely on electricity and those that do not.
Then we will answer the question, what would we do if we had no electricity? What would we do for fun? Next I will read an brief text on Lincoln.

I will read a portion of chapter two, of the book Lincoln  A PhotoBiography.  This chapter will give the students a better appreciation of poor conditions Lincoln and his family experienced and interesting details about other family members.  
In this section I would have vocabulary words or words from this reading that are not everyday words for my students to first predict what the meaning of the word then together we will read this section and see if we can figure the meaning of these words.  Blab school, burly, barrel-chested, lean-to, milk-sickness, whittled, forlorn

 I will read a portion of the book, If you grew up with Abraham Lincoln written by Ann McGovern.  These questions will be answered.  I would ask for a response from my students first asking them to compare their life to Lincoln’s life.

Where would you live?  (Frontier, in the woods not very many people).
What kind of house would you live in?  (Cabin, no windows or real door)
What books were available for children?  (Bible, Aesop’s Fables, Robinson Crusoe, and the Arabian Nights (Sinbad the sailor), Books about Benjamin Franklin)
How would you travel?  (Walk or on horseback even though roads were bad some and some had places no roads at all trees and shrubs had to be chopped down to continue on.)
Response Activity:  After the readings and group discussions I will ask my students to make a book by drawing and recording some new ideas they have learned about Abraham Lincoln.
I will provide construction paper, colored pencils, writing paper, and yarn to hold the book together
 They will add to these books through all six lessons and display these at open house.
The students will complete the worksheet so I may assess what they have learned
Conclusion: I will observe my students and listen to their discussions to see if they have gained new knowledge about Abraham Lincoln. I will question the students as to what they enjoyed.  Based on this discussion and worksheet accuracy I will make my improvements


~ Invented by Laura Westcott