America the Beautiful

 

Wouldn't you like to learn about heroic Americans that impacted our country? If so, we have the perfect book for you to read!

 

Join us today in Social Studies as we focus on a few people who are American Heroes. Each of these heroes have made an impact on the United States of America. So, lets take a journey back in time and learn all about these men and women. American Heroes By Jo Albee is a children's book that gives detail about the stories and lives of several very important heroes. The heroes in this book include:
 

George Washington

Sacagawea

Mary Mcleod Bethune

Martin Luther King

Roberto Celemente 

Sally Ride

This book starts off by explaining what these heroes have done and states different ways that we honor and acknowledge them. It lists things such as monuments, stamps, coins, and holidays. The book then moves on to talk about each American hero's story and their mark on American history. The illustrations are simple but give great images of the heroes. The author uses easy to read text that gives off phonics instruction. This book is somewhat dry and boring but is very informative for students learning about the heroes of America.

The book goes along great with this Georgia Standard...

SS1H1 The student will read about and describe the life of historical figures in American history.

a. Identify the contributions made by these figures: Benjamin Franklin (inventor/author/ statesman), Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence), Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with Sacagawea (exploration), Harriet Tubman (Underground Railroad), Theodore Roosevelt (National Parks and the environment), George Washington Carver (science).  

This book can definitely be used to teach Social Studies for many grades. This first grade standard fit really well because a few of the figures listed in the standard are included in this book. This book can be read as a class and then  students can research the heroes that are spoken about in this book! After reading and researching the heroes students could do a handout requiring them to identify the contributions of each hero.  You could also have  students  come up with their own way to honor and acknowledge these heroes, by creating a monument or stamp.  There is a tic tac toe game at the back of the book that would be fun for students to do after reading the book.