Easy & Fun Presidents' Day Activities for Kids

Presidents' Day is coming up & I'm always wondering how we should celebrate. I mean, do we go buy a mattress? A new car? Everyone seems to want you to take advantage of some amazing Presidents' Day Sale.

Did you know that Presidents' Day is not the official name of this holiday?

It is still officially called Washington's Birthday! It's been moved to also allow for a celebration of Lincoln's birthday, but the name has never been changed in the official federal holiday documents.

Maybe you're like me & you feel like you should take this day to learn about & honor all of the people who have held the highest office in our land.

Well, I've gathered a few ideas over the years of how we've celebrated Presidents' Day & I'm sharing them with you today!

Presidential Portraits

If you ever get the chance to visit the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, don't miss the gallery that's dedicated to the Presidents. But if you can't visit in person, you don't have to miss out on everything. They have all kinds of free resources online for teachers (& parents) to use.

• This page is hosted by the Smithsonian & has some educational resources. Most are aimed more at older students.
• They also have portrait spotlights on this page that include some really great details & discussion topics for a variety of their portraits, including some for the Presidential portraits.
• Google Arts & Culture is another great place to access some of the portraits & also see some of the First Lady portraits, too!

Presidential Birthplaces & Houses

To get to know more about the men who have served in the Oval Office, here are a few links to lists of birthplaces & other sites that might be of interest.

• Virtual Tour of Mount Vernon - An interactive look at George Washington's estate. Full of all kinds of interesting tidbits!
• List of Presidential Birthplaces, Houses and Libraries - Here's a list compiled by The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance. A few of these sites have virtual experiences or pages for kids to discover more about the various Presidents.
• National Parks Service list - This list contains any of these sites that are operated by the NPS. Some sites have photo galleries or video tours for you to access.
• Interactive Map of Presidential Birthplaces - So fun to see all of the different places our Presidents have been born. Can you guess who the first was to be born in a hospital?
• Here's a short little video about the summer cottage that the Lincoln family would retreat to during his Presidency.

Presidential Books

Your local library is a great resource for books about Presidents. Even if you can't get them before the holiday on Monday, there's never a bad time to learn more about the Presidents! Or store these ideas away for next year. Here are a few lists to get you started...

• Fantastic Kids' Books about U.S. Presidents on Brightly
• 93 Ultimate Children's Books About US Presidents on Bookroo
• 20 Presidents Day Books for Kids on The Brilliant Homeschool

Some of our personal favorites are:

The Presidents Visual Encyclopedia - My oldest literally asked for a book about all the Presidents one year for Christmas, so I grabbed this one. He is now full of random presidential trivia & I'm not mad about it!

John, Paul, George, & Ben by Lane Smith - While only one of the main characters was ever President, the stories of these 4 Founders as mischevious young boys is delightful. The illustrations are also very sweet.

George Washington's Birthday: A Mostly True Tale by Margaret McNamara - Another one about the myths & legends that surround our nation's first President. What was true & what was just a bit of fiction?

Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books by Kay Winters - A well-illustrated story from Abraham Lincoln's very humble beginnings, this book has such a powerful message about the love of learning.

Presidential Arts & Crafts & Snacks

Feeling brave enough to break out the crafting supplies? One year, we decided to focus on learning more about Abraham Lincoln. We attempted to make log cabins out of pretzels & peanut butter. Notice I said attempted...

We also used black paper to make tall hats & beards a la Lincoln. As seen in the picture at the top of this post.

See? It doesn't have to be super creative or complicated! Of course, I'll be pinning fun stuff over on Pinterest, so check this board if you want some more ideas!

I hope you found some ideas that will help your kids' day off go a little more smoothly. Enjoy the extra family time with these educational activities!

Need more family fun ideas? Check out this post I wrote a bit ago about just that.

Cheering you on!