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Picturing First Families
Introduction
In this lesson, students take a virtual trip to Washington, D.C., and visit the
National Portrait Gallery, the White House, and the Library of Congress, with
a side trip to the University of Virginia to gather clues about America's original
First Family, their lives and this period in American history. Students learn
why we pay tribute to George Washington today by featuring his portrait on our
currency. For contrast, students compare the National Portrait Gallery's Washington
portraits with contemporary images of the First Family in the White House today.
They gain an understanding of the significant role the First Family plays in representing
the nation and the image of American families projected to other countries. This
lesson can be extended through a variety of activities including writing a story
about a family photograph and creating a personal family portrait to illustrate
traits and characteristics of the student’s own family.
Learning Objectives
After completing the lessons in this unit, students
will be able to: - Identify America's First Family, understand their role
and know where they live.
- Recognize George and Martha Washington and understand
why they are important in American history.
- Look for details in historic portraits
to learn more about the people portrayed.
- Compare historic portraits with
contemporary photographic images.
- Describe what family portraits can tell
us about a family and individual family members.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson - Log onto the National
Portrait Gallery, available through EDSITEment, and click on Exhibition to
preview the portraits suggested for use in this lesson. If you do not have Internet
access in your classroom, print portraits 9, 10, 11 and 12 as resources for the
lesson. It will be helpful to read the background information provided with each
portrait.
- Collect a selection of images of the President and his
family from newspapers and newsmagazines.
- Preview The
White House for Kids, available through EDSITEment, which is suggested for
student use in this lesson. (If students do not have computer access in your classroom,
you may wish to print resources from this site to incorporate in this lesson.)
- Preview The
Papers of George Washington, available through EDSITEment. Frequently Asked
Questions provides background information about George Washington, Martha Washington
and their home in Mount Vernon. At Frequently asked Questions about George Washington,
note the Special Link for Kids to a five-part comic strip about young George.
Guiding Question: What can we learn about
America’s original First Family and current First Family by looking at portraits
of these families?
Suggested Activities
Lesson 1: Introducing the First Family
Lesson 2: Who were George and Martha Washington?
Lesson 3: Honoring our First President
Lesson 4: Fast Forward 200 Years
Extending the Lesson
Lesson 1 Introducing the First
Family
Begin by explaining that students will look at pictures
to learn what they tell us about history and about families. Show the class several
photos clipped from newspapers and magazines of the President and his wife and
family. Ask the class to name them and to share what they know about America's
First Family. The following questions may help guide this discussion: - Who
are the members of this family?
- Why are they called the "First Family"?
- Where
do they live?
- Do they have pets?
- What do we see members of the First Family
doing on TV and in newspaper photos?
- How long will this family be America's
First Family?
Write key facts about the first family on the chalkboard.
Note: If you have Internet access in the classroom, you may wish to
visit The White House
for Kids to enrich this part of the lesson. Designed for children, this site
includes such topics as the History of the White House, Historic Moments of the
Presidency and Kids and Pets in the White House. Students also can read Inside
the White House, A Newsletter for Kids.
Lesson 2 Who were George and Martha Washington?
Display for students the following portraits of George and Martha Washington
from the National Portrait Gallery: Display portrait
9 and portrait 12:
Ask students to look at the portraits carefully to see what they reveal about
the people portrayed. The following questions may help guide this analysis:
- What are the people wearing?
- How is their hair styled?
- What is in
the background of the picture?
- What can you tell about the people from how
they are posed and the expressions on their faces?
(If students have watched
the popular PBS show "Antiques Roadshow," they may already be familiar with this
method of analyzing portraits for clues.) Ask each student to contribute
a descriptive word to characterize the person in each portrait. Write their words
on the chalkboard. If students haven’t already guessed the people in the portraits,
tell them who they are. Also let students know that George Washington, our first
President, is known as the "Father of Our Country" and that he and his wife Martha
were America's original "First Family.” Explain that Gilbert Stuart painted the
portraits more than 200 years ago, using oil paint on canvas. Display
portraits 10 and 11:
Ask students if they notice anything unusual about these portraits. Explain that
the painter, Gilbert Stuart, purposely left them unfinished. As you look
at the portrait of Martha Washington, you may want to share some of the background
information about her available at The
Papers of George Washington. If you explain to students that Martha destroyed
nearly all of George’s letters to her shortly before her death, it may be interesting
to explore why she did this. Perhaps she had a sense of the historical importance
of her life with her husband and decided that destroying the letters was a way
to keep her private life private. As you look at the portrait of George
Washington, you might want to relate Stuart's anecdote, included in the background
about this portrait, about the President's new set of false teeth. You may also
wish to share some of the background information available at The
Papers of George Washington. Students may be particularly interested in the
questions and answers about George’s family, his false teeth (with a link to a
photograph of the teeth) and the celebration of his birthday. Ask the
class if this portrait of George Washington looks familiar and if they might it
have it before. Allow time for responses, then show students a one-dollar bill
and pass it around the class to give students a close look at the portrait it
features. Do the same with a quarter-dollar coin.
Lesson 3 Honoring our First President
Explain
that memorializing George Washington on our currency is just one way we pay tribute
to him. Ask students if they can think of other ways we honor George Washington.
(Examples: Mt. Rushmore; the Washington Monument; hundreds of places named after
him, including Washington state and Washington, D.C.; celebrating his birthday
in February.) To expand this discussion of why we honor The Father of
Our Country, remind children of the story of the cherry tree and George's truthfulness
(or recount the story if it is unfamiliar). You may want to explain that Washington’s
honesty set an example for all other Presidents to follow. You will find the fable,
illustrated with a portrait of the young George Washington, at The
Papers of George Washington, available through EDSITEment. This
is an excellent opportunity to highlight key facts about George Washington, such
as his role as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution,
his contribution to establishing the Constitution of the United States and his
place in history as the first President of the United States. Without him, the
American Revolution and the new country might not have succeeded. Revisit
the students' descriptive words about George and Martha Washington. Now that they
have learned more about George and Martha, see if these adjectives seem to accurately
depict their character.
Lesson 4 Fast Forward 200 Years
Once again, display the contemporary images of the current President
and his family. You may also want to take the class to look at the photograph
of the President displayed in your school, or bring the photo to your classroom.
Encourage children to talk about how these images are different from the portraits
of George and Martha Washington. Points of discussion may include how the First
Families are dressed, their facial expressions and what they are doing in the
photographs. Discuss how techniques for making pictures of the First
Family have changed in 200 years. Explain to the class that painters are still
commissioned to paint presidential portraits, but that is no longer the only way
we can see images of our President and his family. Today, photographs and video
let American children see their President every day in newspapers and newsmagazines
and on television and the Internet. It may be interesting to have the class compare
what they know about their President today compared to what children living in
America in Washington's time would have known about their President.
Extending the LessonUse one or more of the following ideas to expand children’s understanding of the
topics in this lesson: - Learn More about George
Washington
These sites provide resources to give students further
insights into the first president: -
Learn More About Martha Washington
These sites provide resources
to give students further insights into the life and times of Martha Washington:
- The
Biography of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, available through EDSITEment.
Read to students the quote that begins the biography and discuss how it reveals
a woman who preferred to be at home but was still loyal to her husband's career
as a soldier and politician. You may want to look at a photograph of George and
Martha’s home at Mount Vernon displayed at The
Papers of George Washington, available through EDSITEment, and talk about
why Martha preferred her home to accompanying her husband to the sites of battles,
both military and political.
- The Custis Family portraits and letters
at The Papers
of George Washington, available through EDSITEment, give insights into George
and Martha’s family. Although George Washington himself never had children, he
adopted Martha's surviving children from her first marriage. He wrote several
letters to these children and to his grandchildren that are available on this
site, as well as portraits of two of the Washington grandchildren.
- National
First Ladies Library, available through EDSITEment, offers additional articles
and biographical materials about Martha Washington.
-
Explore Washington’s Place in American History
Visit these sites
for resources to introduce students to key topics in American History:
-
Write a Story about a Family Portrait
Explain that each family’s
collection of photographs creates a personal portrait gallery. As a take-home
assignment, ask students to look at their family’s photographs, choose one they
like and write a story about it. The story should tell who is in the photo, what
the photo tells about the person or people in it and why the child likes this
particular photograph. (Students may have to ask parents for details of people
and places in older photographs.) Ask students to read their stories with the
class and, if possible, to bring the photo or a copy of the photo to share with
the class. - Create a Personal Family
Portrait
Discuss with students how they could create portraits of
themselves and their families. The following questions may help focus this discussion:
- What people would they include in the portrait?
- What setting
would they choose?
- What would people be doing in the portrait?
- What items
could they include to tell about their family's special interests (pets, musical
instruments, sporting equipment, etc.)?
- What would people who see the portrait
learn about their family?
As an in-class or take-home assignment, have
students draw and color a personal family portrait to display in the classroom.
If this lesson precedes a special holiday (Christmas or Hanukkah, Mother's Day,
Father's Day, etc.), you might want to help children frame the portraits with
posterboard as special gifts to take home.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
National Portrait Gallery
http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/gw/gwtry1.htm
The White House for Kids http://www.whitehouse.gov/sitemap.html#kids_only
The Papers of George Washington
http://www.virginia.edu/gwpapers/ National First Ladies Library
http://www.firstladies.org/
Documents from Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bdsds/bdsdhome.html
Words and Deeds in American History http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(mcc/053))
Additional Resources
Brief
biography of Martha Washington (available through the EDSITEment resource
National First Ladies Library)
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/1492/intro.html
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
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