Thinkin’ Like Lincoln:

Velvet & Steel

SUMMARY and

CLASSROOM IDEAS

        Abraham Lincoln's yearlong Bicentennial Commemoration will be launched on his birthday,      February 12th, 2009.   Are you ready to seize the teachable moments from Lincoln's life and legacy?  

Your homework has been done for you!

Volume I: Thinkin' Like Lincoln:  Velvet & Steel is a unique teaching tool that has been endorsed by the White House Historical Association.  The first in a series, Thinkin' Like Lincoln:  Velvet & Steel combines character education and lifetime lessons, rooted in Lincoln's language and legacy, along with compelling U.S. History.  Its history lesson includes a newly discovered, authenticated letter from a Civil War soldier written to his school-age daughter.  What an appropriate primary source to share with your students!

This sturdy, 4-sided booklet is a hands-on tool, appropriate for elementary- and middle-school students, reaching and teaching children with multiple learning styles.  Time to get your students "thinkin' like Lincoln!” 

Our nation’s commemoration continues until February, 2010.  Check back soon:  We’ll offer the following volumes throughout the year, as we continue to celebrate Lincoln’s life and legacy:

Volume II:     Thinkin' Like Lincoln:   Emancipation Proclamation (history / diversity through art)

Volume III:    Thinkin' Like Lincoln:  A Pictorial State-by-State Journey (biography, geography)

Volume IV:    Thinkin' Like Lincoln:  The Battle Hymn of the Republic (history through music)

Volume V:     Thinkin' Like Lincoln:  Poetry About the President (history through poetry)

Volume VI:    Thinkin' Like Lincoln:  Home Is Where the Heart Is (history brought to the future)

Start your collection of this commemorative Thinkin’ Like Lincoln set today

IDEAS for SCHOOL, HOME,

and SCOUT MEETINGS

                             Thinkin’ Like Lincoln:  Velvet & Steel

Guidelines for the classroom, living room, or meeting room

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THINKIN’ LIKE LINCOLN

Thinkin’ Like Lincoln is designed as a teaching tool to reach and teach our youth – a guideline to spice up your lesson plans, your dinner conversations, or your scout meetings.  Share with your youth   a piece of newly discovered history.  Draw on your -- and their -- creativity to incorporate new information.  Let’s get “Thinkin’ Like Lincoln!” 

It’s important for you to know that this tool was designed to reach and teach youth with multiple learning styles.  To this end, opportunities abound to incorporate writing, art, drama, history, discussion, music, and yes--even food! 

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you were able to purchase the classroom pack, then each child can hold his/her own copy and do the activity sheet on the back page.   If you only have your copy of the classroom tool and you need additional copies of the activity, then we suggest you do the following:

        Photocopy the activity sheet on the back page (or download it) for each participant; or

1. *     Use your overhead or white-board to show and share the original tool with them.
   

Below are a few creative activities to expand upon Thinkin’ Like Lincoln:  Velvet & Steel (Volume 1). We would love to hear how you used your creativity to bring this historical document to life, and will share these ideas on this website from time to time.

SPECIFIC INFORMATION ABOUT VOLUME I (VELVET & STEEL):

IDEA #1:  Extend the back activity page of Velvet & Steel to a personal level.  It is the essence of character education, carrying Lincoln’s legacy into your students’ lives today.  Engage your youth to define the virtues: working in pairs, they can look up the definitions and then explain the definitions to their classmates using drama (e.g., acting out a real life vignette that captures the virtue). 

For Parents:   Look up the definitions together and discuss their meaning around the dinner table.

Once the children understand the definition of each Lincoln-like virtue, lead them through the activity on the back cover.  If you buy the classroom pack, each child can then “weigh” various virtues and draw or write about one (or more) that speaks especially to them.  This discussion can easily be geared to life in the 1800’s as well as children’s lives today.

For Parents: Ask how these virtues work their way into family life, school life, and in other settings.  Have your children come up with examples among the people in your community.

IDEA #2: Share the original quote from which the velvet and steel reference comes: Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), a famous poet and author, was fascinated by Abraham Lincoln.  In addition to writing a six-volume book series on Abraham Lincoln, he wrote a children’s book on Lincoln’s coming-of-age, called Abe Lincoln Grows Up (1956).  When asked to speak about Lincoln in front of Congress on Lincoln’s 150th birthday, this was Sandburg’s opening sentence: 

      Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet,

      who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the

      paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect (poet Carl Sandburg, 1959,

      vol. 105, p. 2265).

Discuss this quote, laden with metaphors, similes, and visual imagery.  Invite your students to write a poem or sentence using two extreme contrasts, similar to Sandburg.  Invite them to draw the metaphors and similes.  Please share them with us!

For Parents:  Talk about the differences between “velvet” reactions and “steel” reactions.  Again, ask your children to give examples from home as to when your reactions have been one or the other, and examples from home as to when their reactions have been one or the other.  Let the discussion flow.

IDEA #3: Cultivate this into an opportunity for experiential learners:  Bring in pieces of velvet or other soft materials, as well as rocks, steel and other hard materials. You can even create fog with a humidifier.  Invite participants to:

*  touch, hold, feel the different items;

*  talk about the virtues that they feel are hard versus soft;

*  discuss situations in school that require these different virtues or “feels”. 

DISCUSSION PROMPTS: Lincoln was a man courageous enough to rescue our Union and compassionate enough to free slaves.  He was a man ambitious enough to rise from poverty through diligence and self-education, and resourceful enough to file his important papers in his stovetop hat (yes, this is true).  As teachers, we hope that such lessons in character can be passed on to our students—lifetime lessons of courage, compassion, ambition, diligence, study, resourcefulness, and more.  We want to teach our students to be courageous enough to stand up to a bully, and compassionate enough to help a special needs child through the school door.  We want to teach our students to be ambitious enough to excel in school to the best of their natural ability, and resourceful enough to apply constructive coping strategies for any learning differences they might face.  These are the lessons that help mold the minds and shape the hearts in our nation’s future leaders. 

For Parents:  Ask your child(ren) to share different examples from their lives where they have witnessed different virtues in action.  Discuss.

IDEA #4: Read aloud the never before-released Civil War letter, penned by Jeremiah Wren, to his school-age daughter (contained in classroom tool). The lessons here are profound.  Have the students study the original document.  Look at the handwriting, notice the formality, assess the message, and talk about the importance of written communication and how it truly can become history for future generations.  

Learn more about the history of these Civil War letters by reading the related newspaper article “Correspondence of woman’s ancestors to be used for teaching” at:

http://www.gazette.net/stories/02112009/potonew201050_32482.shtml.

Share this article with your students. 

DISCUSSION PROMPTS:  Will text messaging and IM chats be our children’s legacy?  Do our students really think about how these text messages and IM chats are received, and/or where the messages will end up in 200 years?  How will this reflect on the writer and his/her future generations?

For Parents:  Discuss with your child(ren) their forms of communication today.  Explore the pros and cons about communicating via handwritten letters, phones, emailing, and texting.  Talk about the role of “interruption” during communication.  What does it mean to be “interrupted”  today?  What do they think it meant to be interrupted in Lincoln’s day?  In their grandparents’ day?   Ask them to imagine what it will mean in their children’s day?

GENERAL IDEAS FOR CELEBRATING LINCOLN’S BICENTENNIAL:

IDEA:  Throw a birthday party for Abe!  The celebration lasts all year, so it doesn’t have to be on February 12th.  Have the kids dress up, select an aspect of Mr. Lincoln to research, present their findings, or act them out for the rest of the class. Food and games of the times mandatory! 

IDEA:  Challenge your students to collect (as a class or grade) 200 factoids about Lincoln’s life and times.

IDEA:  President Obama has drawn much inspiration from President Lincoln.  Divide the students or scouts into Obamas and Lincolns and have them compare and contrast.  Discuss the obvious:  if not for Abraham Lincoln’s bold decisions, would Barack Obama be president today?  For facts about the Obama / Lincoln connection, visit: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/18/in-ways-great-and-small-parallels-to-lin-355583/

For Parents:  Let your child(ren) be President Obama, and you be President Lincoln.  While you’re eating dinner, compare and contrast their lives and their lessons.  Then switch roles.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

We know you’re creative and there’s much more you can do.  How did you use this tool to spark a discussion, plan a lesson, or hold an event?  One teacher told us it inspired her to shift their annual musical review from Broadway to Americana, celebrating the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln.  Tall hats off to her!

Please send us an e-mail at TeachinLikeLincoln@harmonyhearth.org and let us know what you’re doing with this tool. 

                                                 Let’s all get “Thinkin’ Like Lincoln!”