VOTE!

Upon entering the classroom today the children were met with a voter registration table.  Everyone registered to vote by finding their name on the list and signed their name using first and last names . . . very official! They were all excited and just about ready for their first ever election day.

For the past several days we have been studying the presidential, gubernatorial, and lieutenant governor candidates. We practiced saying their names, learned about their families, where they live and what their jobs are right now.  Along with that we read several really great children's books about the presidency, all the jobs that a president has to attend to, and what qualities we all possess that would be necessary for a really great president; hard working, honest, caring, reliable, friendly, and smart.

The children all shared "why" they were choosing their candidates without naming them. Some liked the way their names sounded (we do spend a lot of time listening to sounds in words), the one female on our ballet was popular because some wanted to see what a woman could do, and one child chose all the candidates who currently hold the office because he felt they would know what to do.

After lunch we made the voyage down the long hall to the library that had been transformed into a polling station. The children told the volunteer their first and last names, were given a ballot, and proceeded to the mock booths. Everyone had already made up their minds before entering the booths and were quick to fill in the 3 boxes necessary to make their votes count. They dropped their ballots into a red, white, and blue box and received their official I VOTED sticker!

There was much celebration as we were lining up for the buses and the news was delivered that Barack Obama, Peter Shumlin, and Cassandra Gekas had won their prospective offices at Allen Brook School 2012.