War of 1812, White House and Presidents

I struggled a little with the War of 1812. The Core Knowledge objectives don't address the Native American resistance to further expansion into their land and the British alliances supporting Native American resistance that greatly contributed to this war. So I added that perspective into the Core Knowledge objectives.

War of 1812 Day 1

Introduction of causes, Battle of Tippecanoe, and Old Ironsides

I'm going to begin with this video clip to help me introduce the conflict between Native Americans and pioneers.

Then we will read about the Battle of Tippecanoe using parts of the chapter in The Complete Book of US History.

Essentially I tried to set the stage for the war as such:

• Settlers wanted to move west into Native American territory.
• The British support Native American resistance to this.
• Further, France and England are fighting on sea as well as land. As US ships travel for trade they are captured by both France and England. They sometimes force the sailors to join their war which is called impressment.

Finally, the US joins France in the war against England and against the Native Americans allied with England.

Most of the land battles were with Native Americans on the frontier.

Battles between the US and England directly were often at sea using wooden ships with cannons in their sides.

To present the above points and Core Knowledge objectives I made and then read a story type thing from select portions of the information here (Old Ironsides is Born section) I used a picture of the ship from a google image search in my story.

Activities to Close
We figured the size compared to our space as specified here.

Other ideas I collected but didn't use included:
Paper Battleship
What Floats, What Sails

Day 2 General White House and Presidents, Burning of White House, Dolley Madison

We talked about the current president and the White House generally first. I made a little print out using pictures I found online primarily of Obama and his family as well as the White House. My print out also highlighted information about the children who have lived in the White House now and in the past. Lesson 20 in this link and link and link

I used the videos in this person's tour of the White House playlist to get a little of an inside look.

We then reviewed the first four presidents using the book Yo, Millard Filmore.

We watched this clip covering the Presidents.

To cover the Core Knowledge objectives involving the Burning of the White House and Dolley I used much of lesson 7 from this site. I did begin with the introduction in the lesson—what would you take with you if you were leaving your home never to return? Then I wrote the lesson content in story form with some google images.

Day 3 Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner, Battle of New Orleans

Fort McHenry and the Star Spangled Banner
I read this.

Then we created a flag and talked about it’s symbolism. I used something similar to this plan except we used white paint and finger tips to make the “stars” rather than using the star template.

Battle of New Orleans
We watched Communication Now and Then
Then I read the description on the left side of page 142 in The Complete Book of US History but there is an alternative lesson here and this could easily make another day of lessons if desired.

Here is a map to show…sad

MATERIAL FOR A MORE INVOLVED UNIT
I left out so much that could be done with the War of 1812 for various reasons. If my kids were older I would cover a lot more so I wanted to include some great links I found.

This has so much to plan a War of 1812 unit!
http://www.42explore2.com/1812war.htm

War of 1812—website with lesson plans, video, and more for Old Ironsides.
http://www.allhandsondeck.org/main_toc.php

War of 1812 resources—video clips and interactives etc. from the History Channel
http://www.history.com/search?search-field=1812&x=12&y=11