Residents of The White House

 Play/Skit

Students will use a historical event as a basis for a play.  The play will have to incorporate a major event during that President's time peiord.  The skit should be approximately 15 minutes. Students will have to react the historical event. All the students involved in the skit should wear the appropiate attire.  Students should focus on details in order to reflect customs, language and setting of the period. 

Creative Story

Students will integrate historical events into a piece of fiction, incorporating the customs, language and geography of the period.  Students synthesize information from a variety of sources into a well developed creative story for your readers. Students will write from the perpective of a president during a particular historical era.  Your goal is to make your literary work memorable in order to target the class which will help them to that specific period.

 Poem/Song

Students will follow the conventions of a particular type of song or poem as they tell about a presidential historical event.  Students may use any popular genres of music to carry out their performance.  Classmates should be able to interpret the message or the lyrics that are related to all of the presidents.  The poems or songs should produce rhymes and melodies which will help memorization. 

Primary Sources:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/

First link provides a short history of the US Presidency, along with biographical sketches and portraits of all the presidents to date. From the official White House site.

http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/

In this resource you will find background information, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents. Links to biographies, historical documents, audio and video files, and other presidential sites are also included.

http://www.presidentsusa.net/movies.html

This link provides movies, plays, television shows featuring the Presidents and the Presidency.

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/presidents-day/past-presidents-of-usa.html

This link allows you to select the president you want information about from the list and provides trivia games and other resources for you to identify all presidents.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4678

This special guide to the Presidents highlights vital information about the men who have led our country. You will find information on the President's birthplace, political party, age when inaugurated, term of office, and at least one notable or unusual fact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITdakRPwI-U&feature=fvw

This is a link that pertains to students who are doing a song for this project. This is an example of how the song should be set up.