Visiting Our Founding Father's Home: Looking at George Washington's Mount Vernon Through Shapes

6/21/2015

In honor of Father's Day, I thought I would share with you some of the research and work of my students while we studied George Washington and Mount Vernon.

I either tie my studies to our geographic studies of the states or to our timeline studies when I am planning. This extended study on George took place while we were studying VA (the week was packed as there is SO much to look at).

Moffat's friend, Zerah, gave him some royal treatment earlier in the winter and my kids truly enjoyed the photographs. Mount Vernon continues to expand the visual choices for the virtual tour. As it is impossible to actually take my students there, this offered a rather amazing substitute. They enjoyed having the ability to investigate rooms, rotate to see various angles and have more information available about the artifacts in the room.

Since I use an interdisciplinary approach in my classroom, drawing Mount Vernon using shapes seemed like such a natural crossover into math (we had been studying decomposing shapes in our math unit). I am always amazed at what students can do if you have them follow you step by step. All of the Mount Vernons had their own distinct look, but one could definitely tell which historic landmark had been drawn.

I really enjoyed combining our books and research with Mount Vernon's online resources with our classroom art. The students were completely engaged and my only regret was that I wanted more time!

If you have not seen the amazing Mount Vernon virtual tour, click the link below to see more!