As of 2011, 44 men have served in the office of president of the United States. Each president's life experience influenced his response to the challenges he faced during his term in office. Ask students to choose one or more U.S. presidents to research, giving careful attention to how early experiences may have shaped his response to the issues that arose during his administration. For example, a student might research what in Abraham Lincoln's life shaped his thinking to such an extent that he rose to the challenge of abolishing slavery. Write a brief biography that describes the life history of a president, including specific examples of life-shaping experiences as they relate to his important decisions or major accomplishments.
Writing a letter to a president gives children a chance to look at the issues that were important to the people in a given time period and why they held the opinions that they did. After identifying these issues and talking about the historical and cultural factors that influenced people's thinking during that era, have students write a letter to the president as a citizen of that time. Define the geographical location, profession, and social and economic standing of several characters and let each student choose to write a letter expressing that person's point-of-view on a particular issue that presented itself at the time. For example, in 1960, have students describe how a middle-class farmer in rural Alabama would express his feelings on civil rights as opposed to a wealthy industrialist's wife in Illinois.
Starting from the campaign trail and continuing through the duration of the president's term or terms in office, he must give many speeches and participate in debates addressing the issues that concern the people. Study the text of some famous presidential speeches and debates to understand the different points-of-view. Have students choose a historical issue and prepare persuasive presidential speeches to convince others to follow their lead on the matter. Alternately, set up a mock presidential debate with each side representing one historical viewpoint on the issues.
Game-show style activities provide an fast-paced and fun way to review all that students have learned about U.S. presidents. Create a set of questions at different difficulty levels and lay out a Jeopardy-style board. Divide the class into teams and give each team a buzzer. Have teams take turns selecting a question category and level. Read the question aloud. The first team to buzz in tries to answer the question. If they miss, the others team get a chance to answer and steal the points (or "money"). The team with the highest total when all the questions have been asked wins the round. Play as many rounds as you have time for.