Abraham Lincoln Crafts and
Activities for Kids

How to make crafts and activities relating to Abraham Lincoln including: Lincoln's
stovepipe hat, a bulletin board display, and a writing activity.

"Following in Abraham Lincoln's Footsteps" Classroom Writing
Activity and Bulletin Board Display

Abraham Lincoln was the United States' tallest president. He was 6'4" and wore a size 14 shoes, but what was most impressive about him was his character. It would be hard to fill his shoes, both physically and spiritually. He was honest, hard working, respected everyone, and fought against slavery and women's rights.

To begin this activity introduce your children to idioms and discuss the meaning of "following in someone's shoes" and "filling someone's shoes". Read about Abraham Lincoln and discuss his attributes. Then have your children write on the large shoe shape how they would like to be like Abraham Lincoln or "follow in his steps".

Print out the shoe prints onto different colors of legal-sized paper (Left Foot Pattern and Right Foot Pattern). Use light colors the children's writing will show up well. To prepare the bulletin board print out the "Abraham Lincoln", Following in His, and Footstep words, cut them out, and staple them to the middle of the bulletin board. Staple the finished shoe prints in a path around the title. (Printing Problems?)

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Hats Off to Abraham Lincoln! - Classroom Writing Activity and Bulletin Board Display

To begin this activity introduce your children to idioms and discuss the meaning of the idiom "hats off to Abraham Lincoln". Have your children write a paragraph about the things that they admire about Abraham Lincoln on the Lincoln's Hat Pattern. (Printing Problems?)

Make a bulletin board display with the words "Hats Off to Abraham Lincoln" in the center of the board. Staple the finished hats all around the title. (Printing Problems?)

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"Hats off to Abraham Lincoln" Hat-shaped Book Activity for Younger Children

Use the "Hats Off to Abraham Lincoln" Hat Pattern to cut hat-shaped pages from blank paper. Give each child four pages and one cover page. Have them draw one picture on each page of things they admire about Abraham Lincoln. Staple the pages together to make a book. (Printing Problems?)

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How to Make an Abraham Lincoln Stovepipe Hat

What you will need: Black poster board, scissors, pencil, stapler, and glue. How to make: 1. To make the top of Lincoln's hat cut a long strip of poster board to fit around your head with about a one-inch overlap and about seven inches tall.  Staple the piece into a tube shape. Put it on your head to make sure it is big enough. 2. Now place the tube in the middle of a piece of poster board so that one of the open ends is resting on the poster board. Trace around the outside edge. You should have drawn a circle.  Don't worry about it being perfect.  Actually it would be better if it is a little oblong since your head is a little oblong. 3. Draw a bigger circle around that circle to make a brim. 4. Poke a hole in the middle of both circles with a pair of scissors. Cut wedge shapes starting from the center out to the first circle line.  (See picture above.) Do not cut the wedges off. It should look like you are cutting a pie except that the pieces are still attached to the inside circle.

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Now fold up all the wedges and place the tube part of the hat in the center of the rim so that the wedges are sticking up in the inside of the tube.

5. To finish glue the wedges to the inside of the tube.

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Abraham Lincoln's Stovepipe Hat Decorations

What you will need: 16 oz. or 8.5 oz Styrofoam cups and black acrylic paint

How to make:

1. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. 

2. Place one or two Styrofoam cups open-side down on an old cookie sheet. Turn on the light to your oven so you can see inside the oven as the cups melt.

3. As soon as you see the cups start to melt, in about 15 to 30 sec. or maybe a little longer, open the oven door and pick up one of the cups. Gently pull out the rim of the cup.  You may have to put your hand in the cup and press the center of the cup out if it collapsed a little. Do the same for the other cup. Keep doing this until you have the shape you want. You can only shape the cups a little at a time.  The cups are not hot, but be very careful not to touch the sides of the oven. 

4. Once you start to get a rim shape for the hat you can press down on the rim (press it into the cookie sheet) to make it stick out more.  This seems like it is hard but it really is pretty easy. Make sure you put the vent on for your oven and you have your windows open because the fumes from the melting cups probably aren't good to breath in. I used an 8.5 oz. cup for the smaller hat pictured and a 16 oz. cup for the larger hat.  If your cups are melting too fast to work with them, turn down the heat in your oven.

5. Paint the hats black with acrylic paint. Make sure you paint the inside of the rim because it will show somewhat.

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Other Web Sites with Abraham Lincoln Activities

Elementary Web Tech - This site has lots of links to other web sites.

Lincoln's Log Cabin Craft

Picture of the Emancipation Proclamation

Rolled Paper Log Cabin Craft - Family Fun.com