Writing About Mount Rushmore

What You Need:

• Unlined white paper
• Pencil
• Pens
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Lined paper
• Internet access

What You Do:

1. Have your child look at the official website for Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. They will learn that the giant sculptures are of former U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, and that the carvings were completed in 1941. Your learner will also see photos of the monument.
2. Ask your child to take the unlined sheet of white paper and lay it horizontally. 
3. Next, ask them to fold the sheet into four equal sections and leave it folded.
4. Give your child a pencil to draw an outline of a head-and-shoulder shape on the front of the folded paper.  
5. Then, let them cut out the shape with scissors, through all of the folded paper.
6. When your child unfolds the paper, they should have four head/shoulder shapes attached (like paper doll chains) to represent Mt. Rushmore.
7. Next, your learner can use the Internet to research some facts about each president. They can write each president’s name and one or two facts about that president under each silhouette shape. If there is not enough room on the white paper, they can cut small pieces of lined paper to glue underneath each picture and write the facts there. 
8. Ask your child to think about the presidents that came after Theodore Roosevelt, and imagine that a later president will be added to Mt. Rushmore. Which president would your child pick, and why? Let them write their idea and argument on a sheet of lined paper—it’s not yet “set in stone”!