Grab a Free Growth Mindset Escape Room for grades 4-8.

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No matter your age, everyone agrees that a great character makes for a great story. There are few characters in social studies class that can capture the imaginations of kids more so than the Founding Fathers.  It is impossible to tell the story of the founding of our country without studying the character, successes, and failures of the people who risked everything to establish it.  Students are hungry to learn about these historical figures that they have heard about since Kindergarten; with the right lesson plans you can take advantage of that interest with fun activities that are accessible for all of the young learners in your classroom!

Keep reading to find a list of engaging activities and proven resources that will get your kids thinking and actively involved with the stories of our Founding Fathers. 

Videos about the Founding Fathers

Make history come alive with videos from some of the Founding Fathers’ actual former estates!

George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon offers a great selection of videos for kids about the life and times of our first president!  The clips in this section are intentionally curated with kids in mind, which makes them an excellent tool to use in the classroom.  In most of the videos, a question is posed by a child, and a Mount Vernon historian answers with kid-appropriate detail and accompanying helpful graphics or actual footage of the Mount Vernon estate itself! 

Monticello, Jefferson’s estate, also provides short educational videos that you can preview and select based on the level of your students.  

Picture Books about the Founding Fathers

I love using picture books with older elementary students or with middle school students to introduce historical figures or events! 

Once everyone gets over the initial feeling that picture books are meant for little kids (so not true!), students enjoy approaching sometimes complex history in a more approachable fashion through pictures and text.  Here are just a few benefits of using picture books in social studies class:

  • Providing visuals of people and places
  • Introducing vocabulary in a manageable context
  • Piquing student interest about a topic
  • Supporting comprehension with background knowledge
  • Use of different text types (i.e. poetry, narrative) to aid comprehension
  • Providing different perspectives 

Here’s a few picture books about some of the founding fathers that I think are really fun!

I’d use these particular books to provide different perspectives on the founding fathers’ lives that might not otherwise be covered in a video, textbook or article. 

George Washington’s Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora

Many people know that George Washington had bad teeth, and this book is a funny take on how this dental disaster happened.  Told in rhyming verse, this book depicts Washington’s dental drama while also providing detail about his life and accomplishments. The authors used Washington’s own letters and diary entries, along with other documents and records, to tell this humourous and historical tale.

Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barb Rosenstock

Students will love to learn that Thomas Jefferson helped rebuild the largest library in the world–The Library of Congress! (Be sure to show kids some actual pictures of this spectacular building).  This book tells the story of Thomas Jefferson’s passion for reading and collecting books. The tale takes the reader through Jefferson’s whole life, including his experiences during the Revolution and during his presidency, using facts, statistics and humor.

Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the True Story of an American Feud by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain

Though Jefferson and Adams started out as friends, their disagreements over how to run the brand new country of the United States of America led to an epic falling-out.  The book compares and contrasts the two men, and shows how they learned to put aside political differences in the end. 

Eliza by Margaret McNamara

Many older students might be familiar with the story of Hamilton thanks to the popularity of the musical.  Many may not know the remarkable story of Hamilton’s wife, Elizabeth Schulyer Hamilton.  This beautiful biography tells this heroine’s story through the style of letter writing, and includes extensive background information over the American Revolution alongside Eliza’s tale of remaining by her husband’s side throughout much tumult. It’s worth noting that Eliza single-handedly saved all of Hamilton’s writings and papers in order for them to be preserved for history!

Fun Classroom Activities 

These activities make learning about America’s Founding Fathers engaging, fun, active, and even collaborative (if you wish)! They are perfect activities to add to your lesson plans when beginning a unit, or to use in the middle of a unit in order to keep up the interest and excitement in your classroom.

Founding Fathers Escape Room

This Founding Fathers Escape Room is always a hit! Escape rooms provide an excellent way to engage students in problem-solving and critical thinking as they decode interesting facts about Adams, Madison, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin.  The codes include ciphers, morse code, cryptograms and a final 4 digit code based on the previous clues.

Founding Fathers Digital Escape Room

A huge perk of this Digital Founding Fathers Escape Room is that it is housed entirely on ONE website.  That means no outside links, no accounts, no login required, and no prep for you!  Phew–that takes away so many headaches! As students work their way through this escape room, they will earn keys to determine the final 9 digit-code.  Students will hone their critical thinking skills and gain knowledge of the founding fathers along the way!  Puzzles included are ciphers, color codes, directional locks, drag and drop, jigsaw puzzles and more. 

Both escape room activities are just the right level of challenging, and can be completed by any and all upper elementary or middle school students! If this is your first time thinking about using an escape room in your classroom, check out this post for Escape Room FAQs!

Founding Fathers Scavenger Hunt

This unique Founding Father’s Scavenger Hunt is structured as a cake bake-off where students must determine the missing ingredients of a recipe! Students must move around the room while reading passages and answering questions about the Founding Fathers (including John Adams, James Madison, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin). Each ingredient card contains a short passage about the topic, a multiple-choice question and a clue.  The “clues” help them know which ingredient card to visit next!

All of these suggestions and activities are sure to make learning about the Founding Fathers a fun, and engaging experience with your students.  If you’re interested in discovering even more resources to add to your lesson plans about these important figures in American history, check out what other resources I have to offer about  the Founding Fathers over in the Think Tank Teacher shop

Want to learn how to make your very own Mystery Vocab Activity to HOOK your students? Add your name below to get instant access to the FREE training and FREE template. 

Lisa

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Grab a Free Growth Mindset Escape Room for grades 4-8.

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