WOW Game Title: American Symbols Memory Game
Content Area: Social Studies
TEKS Focus: Constitution Day and Freedom Week
Expressions of Culture, Crafts, and Maps
Time and a Community’s History
Physical Education Unit: Cardiovascular and Locomotor
Grade: 2
Resource(s):
Picture Resources: http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/baldeagle.html - Bald Eagle
http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/cpages/states/pat2.html - Gateway Arch
http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/cpages/states/pat6.html - Liberty Bell
http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/cpages/states/pat4.html - Statue of Liberty
http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/cpages/states/pat1.html - Mount Rushmore
Equipment/Materials: American Symbols Memory Game Cards (make enough for 1 set per relay
team), 1 cone per team of 4
(Tip: Tape the cards onto poly spots to help weight them down and remain on the floor or laminate them
on poster board)
**Card-sized Printing Instructions: Go to File-Print. Under “Print Range” select “pages” and type in “320”. Then where it says “Zoom” check on “4 pages per sheet”.
Set Up:
Memory cards flipped over
scattered
Frisbees for the completed
matches to be placed
Activity:
Give the cards with the names of the historical figures on them to each team and scatter their matches
(who they are) face down in the area in front of the teams. This activity is a relay in which they are
trying to be the first team to find all of the matches. Upon the signal, the first person in the line will run
and try to find the match of their team’s first card/historical figure. Upon each turn, they will only get 1
flip to see if they have found the correct match. If they find the match, they pick it up and take it back to
their team’s Frisbee. Teachers will review the matches at the end of the game to reinforce the historical
figures.
Variations:
 Place all of the cards face down in the activity area and have the students flip 2 cards per each
turn. If the two cards match, they pick them both up and put them in their team’s Frisbee. The
team with the most matches at the end when all of the matches have been found is declared the
winners.
Review Questions:
Skill focus: What physical activities can you do in your self-space when it is not your turn
during the relay race?
Academic focus: What is the tallest monument in the United States? What was a gift of
friendship from France to the United States?
Bald Eagle
The National bird
It is found in every U. S. state
except Hawaii. 80% of them
can be found in Alaska.
Gateway
Arch
America's tallest monument at 630 feet
Jefferson National Expansion
Memorial in St. Louis Missouri
is a magnificent monument to
Westward expansion. It was
designed by architect Eero
Saarinen.
Liberty Bell
A chime that changed the world
occurred on July 8, 1776, when it
rang out from the tower of
Independence Hall summoning
citizens to hear the first public
reading of the Declaration of
Independence by Colonel John
Nixon.
It weighs about 2000 pounds and
hangs from what is believed to be its
original yoke, made from American
elm, also known as slippery elm.
Mount
Rushmore
It memorializes the birth, growth,
preservation and development of
the United States of America.
Between 1927 and 1941, Gutzon
Borglum and 400 workers
sculpted the 60-foot busts of
Presidents George Washington,
Thomas Jefferson, Theodore
Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln
to represent the first 150 years of
American history.
Statue of
Liberty
Located in New York Harbor, it was
a gift of international friendship
from the people of France to the
people of the United States and is
one of the most universal symbols of
political freedom and democracy.
From her heel to the top of head her
head is 111feet 1inch (33.86m).