#1198. Presidential Fact Find

Social Studies, level: Middle
Posted Tue Jul 27 07:57:53 PDT 1999 by MIke Renzi (Renzim@yahoo.com).
Pennfield Middle School, Lansdale, PA
Materials Required: Computers with internet access
Activity Time: 30-40 minutes
Concepts Taught: locating information on the internet, computer skills

Presidential Facts Find

Objective: Students will use two internet sites to locate information and produce a crossword puzzle.

Procedure: Go to www.whitehouse.gov, click on whitehouse tours and history. Next, go to Presidents of the United States. Click on each president starting with Washington. Each presidential page starts off with a "fast fact". Copy down each fast fact in your notes, make sure your spelling and data are correct.
After you have all your data, go to www.Puzzlemaker.com to create a puzzle using the facts you found.
Click on "Criss-Cross" puzzle to create your puzzle. Make you puzzle 50x50 and the cell size 30. To begin making your puzzle, type in the President's last name, hit the space bar and then put in your clue. Make sure you don't put the president's name in the clue. When you are finished, print out a copy of your puzzle. Share your puzzle with another member of the class.

Follow-up activities:
1. Play a review game the next day in a Jeopardy format using the student's information.
2. Have each student select a president, collect facts and create a puzzle using information from the Whitehouse.gov site.
3. Have students create a poster based on the facts they have collected.
4. Have students add facts to a bulletin board titled: "Most Interesting Presidential Fact"