President’s Day Biography Unit of Study

Students will love learning all about informational text features as they read and write about President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln. This unit is such a great way to introduce biographies and the kids get so excited to learn about real people from American history!

Presidents Day Biography Study Lesson Plans: Reading Informational Texts

National Geographic has some pretty awesome biographies that are perfect for a biography unit of study! The layout, the photos, the kid-friendly language… all of it works beautifully for young readers. Here are the books we used (affiliate link):

• George Washington by Caroline Crosson Gilpin
• Abraham Lincoln by Caroline Crosson Gilpin

The illustrations and text are right on target for primary grades. They’re clear, engaging, and filled with just the right amount of important information to spark curiosity without overwhelming young readers.

And honestly, the kids feel so grown up diving into real biographies. You can almost see their wheels turning as they connect what they’re reading to the world around them. It’s one of those units where the learning feels big, important, and exciting all at the same time!

And the informational text features of these biographies make them perfect for examining! Headings, captions, bold words, timelines… all those great features are right there for students to explore and discuss.

Plus, it gives you so many natural opportunities to model how easy readers use these features to make sense of nonfiction. Before long, your young learners will start pointing them out on their own. “Look! There’s a caption!” and that’s when you know the magic is happening.

Presidents Day Biography Study Lesson Plans: Studying Biographical Timelines

Timelines are such a helpful text feature for organizing our critical thinking around a person’s life. They give younger students a clear visual of the important events and help them understand how someone’s experiences fit together over time. It’s amazing how quickly kids start to connect the dots when they can see the sequence right in front of them!

Timelines also give students a simple, meaningful way to explore the history of presidents without overwhelming them… just clean, clear snapshots of a leader’s life that make everything so accessible.

We then created our own timelines. Kindergarten students worked together to recall important details from the text and build a timeline for past presidents. The teamwork during this presidents’ day activity is just the sweetest, you can almost see their comprehension deepening as they discuss which events should go where! It’s one of those engaging activities that students look forward to all week, and they always have a great time working together like little historians.

Then they created their own individual timeline for the presidential report.

Presidents Day Biography Study Lesson Plans Unit of Study

Just like our other reading comprehension units, we have created 5 days of detailed lesson plans for each book. Everything is laid out step-by-step so you can focus on those rich conversations with your students. And the best part? There are response options for kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, so you can choose the level that fits your learners perfectly. Your kids are going to feel so smart diving into these biographies, it makes for such meaningful Presidents’ Day lessons!

As a support, we created these schema charts. Students use these charts as a guide when they write their own presidential biography, and wow… it gives them so much confidence! Having their ideas organized in one place helps them focus on the fun part… sharing what they’ve learned in their own words.

Writing Biographies

We have a fun craft to serve as a stand-alone writing activity or as the cover of their book. The kids love adding this creative touch to their biography work, it makes the whole project feel extra special.

And the best part? As they craft, they naturally start talking about the famous presidents they researched. You’ll hear little comments like, “Remember when he…” or “I want to add this to my writing!” It’s such a sweet way to reinforce their fun learning while giving them a hands-on break from the writing itself.

Inside, the students will construct their biography. They take so much pride in putting all their learning together! We also do a sentence study (which you can see on the left-hand side of the picture below). It’s a fun way to reinforce grammar and creative writing conventions while staying connected to the content they’re excited about.

To help add context to the historical times, we compare life back then to how life is today. The students love noticing all the big and sometimes funny differences! It sparks the best conversations and helps them really understand what the world looked like during each president’s lifetime.

We also include in each weekly plan:

• Table of Contents
• Pages of text about the president
• Timeline (as pictured above)
• Glossary

Not to be left behind… here is Abraham Lincoln! Your students will be so excited to learn about both great presidents side by side.

Here is a close-up of the sentence study.  

You can find all of these presidents day activities in the following unit :  Presidents Day Activities – George Washington & Abraham Lincoln – Craft, Writing

You may also be interested in these blog posts about President’s Day and Interactive Read Aloud Lessons:

• Fun Kindergarten Activities for Presidents Day (Free File TOO)
• How to Plan a Kindergarten Interactive Read Aloud

They’re full of easy ideas and classroom-tested fun your students will love!