Washington and Lincoln? They aren't simply two profiles on U.S. coins, but real people whose lives and deeds can be brought alive for your students on the Web. Check out how much snow and cold Washington and his troops endured during the winter of 1777–1778 at Valley Forge. Focus a writing lesson on George Washington's journals as he writes about how he felt leaving his beloved Mount Vernon to become our first President. How did colonial-era newspapers cover the events of the day? Your students can find a copy of the yellowed, original newspaper clipping of Washington's Farewell Address from the Independent Chronicle in 1796.

To understand the turbulent times as Civil War threatened, your students can read newspaper editorials for and against Abraham Lincoln's election in two towns on opposite sides of the Mason-Dixon line. Kids can discover the only known photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg and his handwritten drafts of The Gettysburg Address. Once your students see a photo of Thomas "Tad" Lincoln, the president's youngest son, and other White House kids, start a discussion on what it would be like to grow up in the White House. For an hour-by-hour account of the night Lincoln was killed, your class can visit Ford's Theatre National Historical Site and talk about how the assassination changed the country.