Social Studies - American Presidents, USA flag and Growth in America...

This year we chose to learn about President Abraham Lincoln. We learned how he saved the union and stood up for his beliefs of equality for all Americans. We learned about his love of books and words. We saw a picture of the items that he had in his pocket on the day he was assassinated and talked about what those items say about him. Then we each brought in a bag of our own 5 personal items and we let the class guess who they belong to and what they "say" about us!

We learned about how the flag changed over time and what it means to our nation. Each part of the flag symbolizes our nation and each star stands for one of our states. We learned the 'Pledge of Allegiance' that was written for a 'raising the flag' ceremony. The Pledge helps Americans remember the ideals of freedom and justice that make our country proud! We each made a flag for our family - with one star for each person. Each student chose the colors that they feel are important for their family and included any other symbols that are important to them.

We learned about the growth that took place in San Francisco - its population grew in the year 1849 from 600 to 25,000! This was because of the gold that was discovered there. We learned about how the city grew, what changed, developed and how they had to constantly rebuild. Now the population is more than 750,000! We learned about the Senate and House of Representatives that decide the laws of our country. The senate has 2 representatives from each state and the House of Representatives has seats allocated according to population. It was very important then to know the exact population of each state! we learned about the census, how workers came to each house originally and now we can fill out forms ourselves. We learned about the importance of the census - how city planners use the information to plan: schools, malls and for emergencies. We learned about how America has grown every time the census has been taken. We looked at a population map and made our own, each state colored in according to its population. This week we will be asking our parents where our ancestors came from and showing our class on the map where they moved to. A lot of people from other countries came to the United States to live - that is why our country grew so much!