The following lessons were developed and tested by Mount Vernon's Education Department and contributing teachers in the field, including graduates of our summer George Washington Teachers' Institutes, and have been recently revised and expanded. They are aligned to national curriculum standards, incorporate research, historical thinking, and the use of primary sources, and may be adapted for use across middle grades.
Establishing the Presidency
This lesson plan has students analyze primary documents in order to discuss the challenges that George Washington faced as the first president of a new country.
Manners & Mores of Washington's America
Students will examine the Rules of Civility that George Washington hand-copied as a teenager. They will then classify and categorize the concerns addressed, discuss what it would be like to live in a world imbued with such guidelines, analyze what expectations govern their own behavior, and generate a list of Rules covering the same categories they identified in Washington’s list.
Washington & Slavery: The 1799 Slave Census
Students will use George Washington’s 1799 Slave Census to reveal Washington as a meticulous businessman and slave owner and provide information about the institution of slavery in the 18th century. This lesson plan can accompany the distance learning broadcast, Primarily George.
George Washington & Civic Virtue
Students will focus on Washington’s character and civic virtues and examines the connection between those virtues and fostering a democratic and free society in the United States.
Claiming Common Ground
Students will explore why George Washington’s home was able to transcend the sectional differences that split the nation during the Civil War.
George Washington- A Graphic Novel
Students will research, examine and understand four major events in George Washington’s life and present them in a graphic novel format.
George Washington's Revolutionary Journeys
Students will use cooperative learning, problem solving, and project based activities to discover various journeys George Washington made during the Revolutionary War, create 18th century maps, and compare them to modern state boundaries, towns, and roads.
George Washington Crossing the Delaware
Students will explore and describe Emmanuel Leutze's painting, "George Washington Crossing the Delaware," and research the artist, the Revolutionary war at the time depicted, and the work itself. Students will then write and perform a one act play illustrating the events and action leading up to Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware River.
George Washington in Song
Students will investigate and analyze the historical significance of the Revolutionary War song, “Yankee Doodle” and create their own “Yankee Doodle” style verses about George Washington and the American Revolutionary War.
In Remembrance of George Washington
Students will will write a eulogy for George Washington to describe the important contributions he made to our country.
My Very Own Washington Exhibition
Students will use multiple research sources to choose objects and curate their own exhibition on a specific theme of George Washington’s life.
Surveying Our First President
Students will examine Washington's journals and surveys and use a GPS device to survey and map a site at their school.
American Colonists Protest Song
Students will take on the role of a member of the Sons or Daughters of Liberty and write a protest song, in the genre of their choice, to protest one or more of the British Acts or actions between 1763 to 1774 which eventually led to the American Revolution.
