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10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching With Kid President Videos

April 6 By Linda Kamp 10 Comments

Do you use Kid President videos in your classroom? If not, you should! Check out these 10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching with Kid President videos

Do you teach with Kid President videos? If not, you should! As a primary teacher, here’s what I’ve discovered: Opportunities for teaching language, writing, and literacy standards abound! Plus, the possibilities for using them to build community, foster friendships, and promoting kindness are endless!

If you’re not already teaching with these inspiring, and often times hilarious, kid centered videos, these 10 reasons will surely convince you that you should, because these little gems are teaching gold!

Reason 1: Kid President Plays With Language. A Lot.

Teaching figurative language can be tricky for primary students. These videos are filled with examples of idioms, and literal/nonliteral language. One way to capitalize on those teachable moments, is to make this fun guide to figuring out figurative language for students to identify statements with non literal language, then draw and explain the literal vs. non literal meanings. You can use these with any KP video.

Figurative language can be tricky for some kids. Try using Kid President videos! They lend themselves well to this with so many opportunities for teaching literal and non literal language. 10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching With Kid President Videos

Reason 2: Teaching Theme, Purpose and Central Message- It’s Right There

We teach our students to identify the theme, purpose, and central message of a text, but it’s also important for our 21st century learners to be able to determine the theme, purpose, and central message of digital information and media such as videos.  Students need to be able to respond to text and write about what they are reading. They also need to be able to respond to what they are seeing and watching. With Kid President videos, the message, theme, and purpose is right there. Easily identifiable by elementary students,  these messages are also discernible by even by our youngest learners.

I have my class respond to the videos through discussion and in writing.  We use these differentiated video response sheets.  During our discussion, I ask my class, “What is the big idea or lesson that Kid President wants us to learn from this video?” and “What message is he trying to convey?”  “What is the purpose of this video?” “Is Kid President trying to inform, entertain or persuade us?”

Teaching students to determine theme, central message, and purpose using Kid President videos. 10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching With Kid President Videos

Link to Resource

Some of the common themes of Kid President videos include:

  • Kindness
  • Courage
  • Overcoming Obstacles
  • Fostering Friendship
  • Collaboration
  • Hope
  • Global Citizenship
  • Empowerment

Reason 3: Kid President is Highly Quotable

Almost everything Kid President says make a great quote and an even better poster. This makes for some great lessons on writing dialogue and using quotation marks correctly.

See how we used this Kid President class anchor chart for writing dialogue and correctly using quotation marks. 10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching With Kid President Videos

We used this anchor chart to practice using quotation marks correctly and to identify a quote as “the words a person says”. And as one of my friends said, “Kid President says a lot of words.”

Teaching with Kid President Videos- We made this Kid President writing craft to practice writing dialogue and using quotation marks correctly while giving the world a pep talk!

After watching Kid President Gives the World A Pep Talk, have your students do the same by using quotation marks and writing what they would say to give the world a pep talk.

Teaching with Kid President Videos- We made this Kid President writing craft to practice writing dialogue and using quotation marks correctly while giving the world a pep talk!

We made this Kid President craft and added our written pep talks before displaying them in our hallway.

Teaching with Kid President Videos-Lesson 3- Give the World A Pep Talk. We made this Kid President writing craft to practice writing dialogue and using quotation marks correctly while giving the world a pep talk! This is a fun bulletin board idea for Presidents Day or any day!
During our literacy centers we practiced further with this quotation marks game.

Teaching with Kid President Videos_Quoting Kid President and learning to use quotation marks correctly.

We used small pieces of pipe cleaner as commas and quotation marks.

Teaching with Kid President Videos- Practicing the correct use of quotation marks with Kid President quotes in 1st and 2nd grade.

Reason 4: Kids Like to Learn From Other Kids

There’s nothing more fun to kids than seeing other kids get to do cool stuff.  You know, like dressing up like the president and making your own videos. That’s pretty high on the cool scale. Kids relate to other kids. They listen to other kids, even when we wish they wouldn’t. One of the things I ask my students as we discuss the video we just watched is, “What would you say or do if you were Kid President?”

Teaching with Kid President Videos- If I Was Kid President writing activity to practice writing dialogue and using quotation marks correctly to give kids a pep talk.

Reason 5: Kid President Empowers Kids

One of my favorite Kid President quotes is, “If at first you don’t succeed, you’re normal!”. It’s a welcome one as we teach our students about perseverance and growth mindset. The message in Kid President’s Guide to Being Awesome, and Kid President’s History of Awesome Girls is that kids have a voice and they can change the world. His videos inspire and remind kids that this is their world so get out there and DO something! And of course, to “Be Awesome!”.

Teaching with Kid President videos- Be awesome bulletin board. A great reminder for students!

I use this Kid President sound button I found at Hallmark as a class motivator. Students get to push the button and be told how awesome they are after meeting goals they’ve set for themselves. It has several different Kid President quotes and my class loves it!

10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching With Kid President Videos-See how I use this as a motivational tool in the classroom!

Reason 6: Kid President Encourages Collaboration

In many of the videos Kid Presidents talks about working together and problem solving through collaboration.  This is an important skill for our students to learn. Like any skill, hearing it, applying it, and seeing it in action helps our students to integrate and remember it.

Teaching with Kid President Videos-Throw a Kid President red tie party and wear red ties!

Reason 7: Kids Learn About Social Skills

Kid President videos model important social skills too, like manners, respect, gratitude and thoughtfulness. I like to use the video 20 Things We Should Say More Often to support the teaching of social skills and encourage my kids to “Be awesome!”.

Teaching with Kid President Videos- Using kindness notes to acknowledge awesome!

A fun idea to do with the 20 Things… video is to make class charts of Things We Should Say More Often At School and Things We Would Like To Hear More Often At School.

Acknowledge awesome in your students and school staff by passing out these kindness notes.

Teaching with Kid President Videos-Acknowledging awesome with these motivation notes for students and staff.

Reason 8: He’s A Positive Role Model and a Kid of Character

Kid President videos lend themselves so well to teaching students to infer character traits based on what the character, Kid President, says and does.

Teaching With Kid President Videos-Lesson 7- Inferring character traits class anchor chart after watching the videos.

Start with a discussion about a character trait being a word or phrase that describes a person on the inside rather than on the outside or how they look.

Teaching With Kid President Videos-Lesson 7- Inferring character traits class anchor chart after watching the videos.

Give students sticky notes to write words or phrases that describe the character of Kid President. On another sticky have them write what he says or does that supports their description.

Teaching With Kid President Videos-Lesson 7- Inferring character traits after watching the videos.

Follow up the discussion and anchor chart activity with this student page where students identify character traits then give an example to support it.

Reason 9: Kid President Videos Promote Kindness & Foster Friendships

Friends are a huge part of every child’s life no matter what their grade. One of the things we teach and reinforce in our students is how to be a good friend.  Teaching students how to be kind, inclusive, and how to settle differences is part of every teacher’s day. Teaching children how to make friends is important, too.

Kindness and friendship corn dog craft to use while teaching with Kid President videos. A must-read if you are not already teaching with Kid President videos in your classroom.

Kid President’s Guide to Making A New Friend is a good video to use for teaching kids some things they can do to make new friends. This funny corn dog craft makes my kids laugh and is fun to give to new friends, classmates, reading buddies or school staff.

Reason 10: Because They’re Just Plain Fun!

Last but not least, teaching with Kid President videos is just plain fun! My kids get a huge kick out of all the silly antics, sound effects, and the sometimes randomness, in all of the videos. Why not make a day of it?

Teaching with Kid President Videos- Ideas for throwing a Kid President party in your classroom

Have a Kid President Day or if you don’t have a day, throw a party!  Here’s some easy ideas to get you started:

Teaching with Kid President Videos- Wearing red ties on our Kid President Day.

  • Have everybody dress like Kid President or make these red ties.
  • Serve cupcakes and corn dogs!
  • Watch Kid President videos and have FUN doing the video companion activities!
  • Read books about Presidents and use the Kid President book marks
  • Make the corn dog craft
  • Have a dance party like Kid President
  • Acknowledge awesome and write notes telling staff how amazing they are!

10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching With Kid President Videos-FREE Kid President quotes book marks.

Download these FREE Kid President book marks to pass out at your party because you just can’t be sad when you’re holding a cupcake!

10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching With Kid President Videos-FREE Kid President quotes book marks.

I think you’ll agree there are a lot of great reasons to teach with Kid President videos! You can find the all of these activities in my Kid President Video Companion that can be used with ANY Kid President video. It includes 7 standards-based lessons with lesson plans plus everything you need to make the class anchor charts, printables, crafts, and bulletin board displays.

Do you use Kid President videos in your classroom? If you're not already using them check out these 10 Reasons You Should Be Teaching with Kid President Videos! The opportunities for teaching language, writing, kindness and fostering friendship are endless. Be sure to down load the freebie in the post too.

 

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Happy teaching!

~Linda

 

 

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    Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: anchor charts, Kid President, kindness, literacy

    Comments

    1. Judy Rice says

      March 11 at 4:13 pm

      Hi Linda, do you know if there’s anything with Kid President to use to teach persuasive writing?
      Thanks, Judy

      Reply
      • Linda says

        April 18 at 10:19 am

        I’m not aware of any Judy, but these videos would be great for that!

        Reply
    2. Anna says

      March 11 at 5:08 pm

      LOVE LOVE LOVE these ideas!!!!!! Thank you for writing and sharing such great thoughts and activities!!

      Reply
      • Linda says

        March 28 at 7:02 am

        Hi Anna! You’re so welcome! I’m so glad you found ideas you can use in your classroom. Kid President is one of my favorites!

        Reply
    3. Judy says

      September 23 at 10:08 am

      Wow! I always show Kid President to the kids just because I love him and his videos. Especially his message. This is awesome! ; )

      Reply
      • Linda says

        September 29 at 12:59 pm

        Thank you, Judy! We love Kid President too!

        Reply
    4. Meghan Landry says

      May 8 at 8:50 am

      I tried to get the *free* Kid President bookmark but when I click on it, it states that the document is in the owner’s trash. Is this freebie no longer available? Thank you.

      Reply
      • Linda says

        May 8 at 9:22 am

        Hi Meghan,
        I’m not sure why that happened, but it’s all fixed now. Go ahead and try again.

        Reply

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