which memory pieces for American history?

[Lucy the Valiant]

I'm putting together a list of memorization for American history - 2 5th graders and 2nd grader (all enjoy memorization), and I'm interested in your top "pieces" for memorization.

 

- Lincoln's "Malice toward none . . . " speech

 

- "Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

- "Paul Revere's Ride" (Longfellow) **this one may be too long, but it may not be

 

- Preamble to the Constitution

 

- "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus (I still remember this one from my own childhood)

 

- part of MLK's "I Have a Dream" Speech (need to figure out excerpt

 

- "The Gift Outright" by Robert Frost

 

 

 

 

 

Others??? Not looking for lists of dates / presidents / states, necessarily, but more prose or poetry works that sort of "sum up" the American experience.

 

Looking for something from the Plymouth colony, maybe something of Bradford's.

[Lucy the Valiant]

Gettysburg Address

[Alte Veste Academy]

"I Will Fight No More Forever"

 

Perhaps too harsh for your 2nd grader but, IMO, appropriate for a 5th grader.

[Mrs Twain]

Choose an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, either starting from the beginning or at least the part that starts, "We hold these truths to be self evident..."

 

I had my kids memorize some facts about the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, including the purpose of the document as well as the list of rights in the first two amendments.

 

Learning to sing patriotic songs and say the Pledge of Allegiance are important.

[umsami]

What about featuring some women?  I'm sure there's some stuff out there by Eleanor Roosevelt, some of the suffragettes, etc.

 

Here are some quotes:

http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/history/quotes

[Lucy the Valiant]

Thank you! I'm not compiling a "representative sampling," per se, just some of the "big famous things that most kids memorize."

 

Abigail (and John) Adams are on our biography list, so I'm sure we'll have at least one or two from there - and we have quite a few American poetresses represented as well. We're DIY-ing American history this year, incorporating a lot of field trips and memory work.

 

Thanks, all - feel free to add more if you think of them! (We are pretty avid memorizers.)

[umsami]

What about "The New Colossus" poem....it's written by an American woman poet, Emma Lazarus, and is on the Statue of Liberty. :)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Colossus

 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 

 

Edited to say NM...see you already have this. :)