It’s interesting to see the images people come up with.
Here is what I used with a 3rd grade class of 8 and 9-year-olds who have a small vocabulary and don’t yet have a lot of cultural references to draw on:
| # | President |
Mnemonic Image |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | George Washington | Washing machine |
| 2nd | John Adams | Atom |
| 3rd | Thomas Jefferson | Chef |
| 4th | James Madison | Mad sun |
| 5th | James Monroe | Man rowing a boat |
| 6th | John Quincy Adams | Quince pear |
| 7th | Andrew Jackson | Michael Jackson |
| 8th | Martin Van Buren | Van Burning |
| 9th | William Henry Harrison | Haircut |
| 10th | John Tyler | Necktie |
| 11th | James Polk | Polka dot dress |
| 12th | Zachary Taylor | Taylor Swift |
| 13th | Millard Fillmore | Film camera |
| 14th | Franklin Pierce | Pierced ear |
| 15th | James Buchanan | Cannon |
| 16th | Abraham Lincoln | Chain link |
| 17th | Andrew Johnson | Drawing (Drew) a picture with Johnson’s baby powder |
| 18th | Ulysses S. Grant | Grand Canyon |
| 19th | Rutherford B. Hayes | Haystack |
| 20th | James A. Garfield | Garfield the Cat |
| 21st | Chester A. Arthur | Art easel |
| 22nd | Grover Cleveland | Cleveland Cavaliers |
| 23rd | Benjamin Harrison | Haircut |
| 24th | Grover Cleveland | Cleveland Cavaliers |
| 25th | William McKinley | Mac ‘n cheese |
| 26th | Theodore Roosevelt | Teddy bear |
| 27th | William Howard Taft | Taffy |
| 28th | Woodrow Wilson | Wilson basketball |
| 29th | Warren G. Harding | Hardboiled egg |
| 30th | Calvin Coolidge | Kool-Aid |
| 31st | Herbert Hoover | Vacuum (hoover) |
| 32nd | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Rose |
| 33rd | Harry S. Truman | A true or false test |
| 34th | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Eyes |
| 35th | John F. Kennedy | Can |
| 36th | Lyndon B. Johnson | Laying on Johnson’s baby powder |
| 37th | Richard Nixon | NY Knicks |
| 38th | Gerald Ford | Ford Mustang |
| 39th | Jimmy Carter | Shopping cart |
| 40th | Ronald Reagan | Ray gun |
| 41st | George H. W. Bush | A big bush |
| 42nd | Bill Clinton | Cling wrap (plastic wrap) |
| 43rd | George W. Bush | A little bush |
| 44th | Barack Obama | Brick |
| 45th | Donald Trump | Trumpet |