George Washington Lesson Plan: Individuals’ Contributions and Identities

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the George Washington Lesson Plan. 

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic George Washington, and supports the standard of recognizing the contributions of the Founding Fathers. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Display an image of a dollar bill:

Ask students:

• Why do you think George Washington is pictured on the one dollar bill?  
• Why do you think they call George Washington the “father” of the United States? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read the description on the George Washington topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• AssignRelated Reading. Have students read one of the following articles: “Laws and Customs,” “Myths,” or “Trivia.” Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
  

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign George Washington Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about George Washington while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie: Produce an interview with George Washington about his presidency, and his thoughts about his own legacy. 
• Make-a-Map: Analyze the events and factors that led Washington to be the first president of the United States. 
• Creative Coding: Code a flag representing the precedents Washington set for the role of the president of the United States.  

More to Explore

Time Zone X: George Washington:  Challenge players to put historical events in chronological order in this interactive timeline game.

Sortify: American Revolution: ​​Challenge players to sort facts by attributes, such as military heroes, Declaration of Independence signers, and more. 

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.