Hooray For Heroes

Introduction:The President's Committee for Patriotism has chosen your school to participate in our Hooray for Heroes Project. You have been selected to hold a Hooray for Heroes Celebration-a celebration of American spirit and family courage. Heros are role models that we can look up to and have made a difference in our lives. They can be heroes that have national importance or even family heroes. You can find heroes in your very own school.

Task: In order to participate in the Hooray for Heroes celebration, it is important that you understand what heroes really are. You will need to study famous American heroes. Then you can choose several school heroes and interview them. Finally, select your personal hero and write a story about them. You will be responsible for creating silhouettes, graphs about hero birthyears, maps showing hero birthplaces and measuring specific parts of the school heroes. You will also be creating hero coins and buttons as well as learning famous American hero songs and painting hero portraits.

Process:

American Heroes:

1. Your teacher will read books to you about several American heroes. (the ones used at our school are: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Betsy Ross, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Pocahontas, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Squanto, George Washington Carver)
2. Create sentence strips noting the important accomplishments of these figures.
3. In journals, write a fact and draw a picture of each American hero.
4. In art class, construct large standups of these American heroes.
5. Map their birthplaces on a large United States map (we made this with MapMakers Toolkit, but any map can be used)
6. Learn hero songs in music class.

School Heroes:

1. Nominate and vote on 4-6 school heroes.
2. Invite the heroes to the classroom to be interviewed and measured. Use the the invitation letter and interview form.
3. Measure hero's height with unifix cubes.
4. Measure arm length with links.
5. Measure around hero's head with links.
6. Make a silhouette of each hero.
7. Graph their ages (in decades 30's, 40's, 50's) and birthmonths.
8. Map their birthplaces on US and world maps.
9. Invite your heroes to the Hoorary for Heroes celebration.
10. On the day of the celebration, visit with your heroes and give them a certificate and pin.

Family Heroes:

1. Choose your own personal hero.
2. Send them a letter requesting more information. Attach the questionnaire.
3. Write a story about why the hero was chosen.
4. Create a Hoory for Heroes newspaper with your hero stories and pictures of each student. (teachers completed this task)
5. Paint a portrait of your hero (we did this in art class).
6. Make hero coins and buttons (in computer lab).
7. Graph age and birthmonth.
8. Map birthplace.
9. Invite your heroes to the Hoorary for Heroes celebration.

Evening Event (Opportunity to Share):

Portraits will be hung on display screens in the cafeteria. Beside the portraits, will be the hero story and your picture. Your job is to:

1. Visit the main table and pick up your Hooray for Heroes newspaper, hero button and coin.
2. Pin the hero button on your hero. Show them the hero coin and newspaper.
3. Stand beside your hero portrait off and on during the evening.
4. Answer questions that guests ask.
5. Introduce your hero to guests and other heroes.
6. Serve your guests refreshments.
7. Enjoy watching the video with your hero songs that you learned in music class.

Assessment:Students were assessed using anecdotal notes and work samples to record their progress in several areas: Writing, Computer Skills, Math, Social Studies, Listening and Interpersonal Skills. Specific skills can be located in the Fairfax County ECAP folder and in the Virginia SOL's.

For pictures and examples of the work, click on the girl.

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This unit was created by Susan Goodin and Barbara Johnston with assistance from Brooks Widmaier, School-Based Technology Specialists and many other specialists at Kings Park School