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4th Grade President’s Day Resources

1 4th grade President’s Day resources: 1 worksheet and 1 assessment. How teachers use these

4th Grade President’s Day Resources

1 4th grade President’s Day resources: 1 worksheet and 1 assessment. How teachers use these

Assessment
Assessment4th GradeThe First President of the United States Reading Comprehension Worksheet

This First President of the United States Reading Comprehension Worksheet gives 5th grade readers a two-page biography of George Washington, five questions, and an answer key that makes grading quick.

4th GradeHolidaysPresident’s DayWorksheets
From our teachers' playbook

More than a day off school

What do 4th graders learn about Presidents' Day?

Presidents' Day lands on the third Monday in February and started as a celebration of George Washington's birthday, February 22. Fourth graders go past the coins and portraits. They read about Washington and Abraham Lincoln as real people who faced hard choices, learn what the president actually does as head of the executive branch, and talk about qualities of a good leader. The best part? Kids start backing up their opinions with facts from what they read.

How we make Presidents' Day meaningful

Fourth graders can handle real history. These moves build reading, thinking and a little civic pride all at once.

Read it, then prove it

Have kids read a short passage about George Washington, then answer questions that ask "How do you know?" They underline the sentence that proves each answer. That habit of going back to the text is the real goal, and it carries into every subject.

Why it works: pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than rereading it, one of the strongest findings in learning research (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).

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Coin and bill detectives

Pass around pennies, quarters, $1 and $5 bills (or pictures of them). Kids figure out which president is on each one and look up one fact about him. Then ask: why do you think he was chosen? Great talk follows every time.

Why it works: children learn more from words and pictures together than from words alone (Mayer, 2009).

Leader trait chart

Make a two-column chart: Washington and Lincoln. As you read, kids add traits with evidence, like "honest: he admitted mistakes." Then they pick a trait they want to show this week in class. History becomes personal, fast.

Why it works: the U.S. Department of Education's guide for teaching elementary math recommends moving from hands-on objects to drawings to numbers.

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1 Worksheet1 Assessment

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Questions teachers and parents ask

When is Presidents' Day?

It's on the third Monday in February. It began as a celebration of George Washington's birthday on February 22, and many people now use it to honor all U.S. presidents.

Why do we celebrate Presidents' Day?

To remember the leaders who have served the country, especially Washington, the first president, and Lincoln, who led the nation through the Civil War. It's a good time to talk with kids about leadership and citizenship.

What should 4th graders learn about Presidents' Day?

The history of the holiday, key facts about Washington and Lincoln, and what the president's job is in the three branches of government. Reading short biographies and citing evidence fits 4th grade reading goals perfectly.

What's a quick Presidents' Day activity for 4th grade?

Give kids a short reading passage about a president and three text-based questions. It takes about 20 minutes and works for morning work, centers or a sub plan.

Keep exploring

4th Grade Holidays Resources

Written by the Have Fun Teaching team of elementary teachers and homeschoolers. Research: Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1). Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia Learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. U.S. Department of Education, What Works Clearinghouse (2021). Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Intervention in the Elementary Grades.