9. Center for Cultural Resources at IUS Library

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Materials:

• Suggested websites (from Myra Powell, Principal at Borden Elementary School, an Abraham Lincoln Legacy School – state and national) that contain Abraham Lincoln activities:
  • http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/learning-about-lincoln/for-teachers/default.aspx
  • http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/lincolns-life/default.aspx
  • http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/lincolns-legacy/what-lincoln-means-to-me.aspx
  • http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/learning-about-lincoln/community-projects/default.aspx
  • http://www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/search.aspx?search=Favorite+Flower
  • http://www.in.gov/lincoln
  • http://www.kylincoln.org/default.htm
  • http://www.isbe.state.il.us/htmls/abe.htm

About:

IUS Library

IUS Orchard Lodge

IUS pond and garden

IU Southeast is a beautiful campus with a bucolic setting that conveys a message of learning.  The IUS Library houses a haven for educators:  global/international/cultural resources via the Center for Cultural Resources(http://www.ius.edu/Education/CurricResources.cfm#91).  The Center for Cultural Resources (CCR) is a collection of resource kits, each organized to teach a core of 12 universal themes on unity and diversity. The kits provide instructional resources and lesson plans designed for thematic, interactive and realistic learning.

A collection of kits focus on Abraham Lincoln and may be borrowed by educators able to access (pick and return) the kits.  Retired Emeritus Professor of Elementary Social Studies education, along with Myra Powell, Principal of Borden Elementary School, shared many Lincoln-related classroom activities and resources: 

• Life-size image of Lincoln along a wall with various facts listed
• Fund-raiser with Lincoln hats made from Pringles potato chip cans
• Lincoln-era log cabins
• Lincoln look-alike dress-up contest
• Bake Lincoln penny cookies
• Hat day for .50c (profits to charity of students’ choice)
• Pitch pennies for Presidential Pages (parent volunteers needed)
• Decorate classroom doors about Abraham Lincoln’s life (contest)
• Bean soup, corn bread, baked apples for lunch
• Honored local veterans for Veteran’s Day (book via Scholastic entitled “Fireboat”; along with thank you letters)
• Lincoln play
• Lincoln display at front door/entrance to school
• Lincoln video (students develop questions and interview Lincoln “experts” and visit Lincoln resource sites)
• Lincoln poems
• Create giant Lincoln pennies with a new design (brown paper on hoola hoops)

A school could create a Lincoln Culture Kit (trunk) incorporating historical markers, human time-line through use of space, women of Lincoln’s time (Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Sarah Bush Lincoln, Sarah Lincoln, nurses, slaves, teachers… “herstory” – write about women who impacted your place), methods of communication, first-person re-enactments, use of language and celebration, and more. Many additional possibilities exist dependant upon your interests and those of your students.

The amazing Lincoln collection by Mr. McMahon!!			Myra and Claudia		Claudia and Celestine discussing culture kits in the IUS Center for Cultural Resources.
Myra sharing all of the diverse and amazing Lincoln activities that her students enjoy.	Jamie looking through Lincoln artifacts.

The McMahon Lincoln Collection, a few items seen below, was shared with the group recognizing the efforts of Mr. McMahon, who began a casual collection of Abraham Lincoln artifacts as a young boy and who continued the collection in ernest as an adult. THANK YOU to Mrs. McMahon for her generosity!