Abraham Lincoln
(Tune: “Pop Goes the Weasel”)
Abraham Lincoln, past President, (Point to a picture of Lincoln.)
Loved and honored by many.
To help us remember this famous man,
We put his face on a penny.
Hold a penny in your hand (Hold up a penny.)
And his face you’ll see.
He always tried to tell the truth.
He’s Honest Abe to me.
*Talk about what it means to be honest. Why did they call him Honest Abe?
Put Your Face on a Penny
Give children a sheet of paper cut in a circle. Draw what you would you look like if your face were on a coin?
Log Cabin Snack
This is an "engineering" activity that's good enough to eat! Give children pretzel twist sticks and a spoonful of peanut butter or cream cheese. Children try to build a log cabin by stacking the pretzels with the peanut butter.
Penny Inspection
Let children look at pennies with a magnifying glass.
Rubbings
Make rubbings of pennies.
Penny, Penny
Three children leave the classroom. The other children cup their hands as if holding a penny. The teacher hides the penny in one child’s hand. When the three children return to the room, they walk around the room and open their friends’ hands. The first one to find the penny gets to choose 3 new friends to leave the room and she gets to hide the penny.
Time Line
Give children a sentence strip. At the left write the year they were born. Write each additional year up until the present. Children take the time line home and try to find a penny with each year’s date.
Hint! Explain that’s it’s O.K. if they don’t find all of them.
Did you know? If you look closely at pennies minted from 1959 to 2008 you can see Lincoln's statue in the Memorial.
In 2009 they introduced four new designs celebrating the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth year.
Birth in Kentucky Formative Years in Indiana
Professional Life in Illinois Presidency in DC
In 2010 the shield design was coined.
