Memorization of patriotic songs and classical literacy selections are a highly valued part of the educational program of L.A.S. In August, I sent home a copy with all the 4th grade memory challenges on it. Students are to keep it in the page protector in their homework folder. Memory challenges are an oral grade. I am testing for memorization,inflection in voice and speaking loud and clear. It is important that each student has good eye contact and welcoming body language as he/she recites the memory challenge to the class. Folded arms, looking down/up or rocking back and forth is NOT welcoming body language.
Star Spangled Banner (Recite and fill in a cloze passage)
Pledge of Allegiance (Recite and write the meanings)
The Wind
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
President Lincoln
Presidents 1-46
Memory Challenges
The Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
The Star-Spangled Banner
by Francis Scott Key
Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
The Wind
by Robert Louis Stevenson
I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass-
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all –
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song.
O you are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field or tree
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
President Lincoln
(Sung to “Reuben, Reuben I’ve Been Thinkin”)
President Lincoln, I’ve been thinkin’
When you were a tiny babe.
As a youth, you told the truth,
So people called you “Honest Abe.”
President Lincoln, I’ve been thinkin’
You grew up tough as nails.
On the farm, you swung your arm,
And with an axe you split the rails!
President Lincoln, I’ve been thinkin’
How you taught yourself the law.
Every book around you took.
And read like no one ever saw!
President Lincoln, I’ve been thinkin’
Back to when you wrote the
Emancipation Proclamation,
So the slaves could all be free.
President Lincoln, I’ve been thinkin’
How you bravely led the land.
Once divided, now united.
You made sure our house would stand.
Presidents in Order
1. George Washington
2. John Adams
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. James Madison
5. James Monroe
6. John Quincy Adams
7. Andrew Jackson
8. Martin Van Buren
9. William Henry Harrison
10. John Tyler
11. James Polk
12. Zachary Taylor
13. Millard Fillmore
14. Franklin Pierce
15. James Buchanan
16. Abraham Lincoln
17. Andrew Johnson
18. Ulysses S. Grant
19. Rutherford B. Hayes
20. James A. Garfield
21. Chester A. Arthur
22. Grover Cleveland
23. Benjamin Harrison
24. Grover Cleveland
25. William McKinley
26. Theodore Roosevelt
27. William H. Taft
28. Woodrow Wilson
29. Warren G. Harding
30. Calvin Coolidge
31. Herbert Hoover
32. Franklin D. Roosevelt
33. Harry S. Truman
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower
35. John F. Kennedy
36. Lyndon B. Johnson
37. Richard M. Nixon
38. Gerald R. Ford
39. Jimmy Carter
40. Ronald W. Reagan
41. George H. Bush
42. Bill Clinton
43. George W. Bush
44. Barack Obama
45. Donald Trump
46. Joe Biden
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost
Whose woods there are I think I know.
His house is in the village though
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.