So You Want to be President

For some reason even when I rotate a scanned image so that it is facing the correct direction and save it that way, it doesn't want to upload that way. You'll have to turn your head to read the flier.

I presented a program at the children's library this morning. It was in honor of the upcoming inauguration, so the idea was that I would read books and sing songs related to being President and America in general. The books I chose were So You Want to be President? by Judith St. George, The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller, and Duck for President by Doreen Cronin. I also planned to sing "Yankee Doodle" and "Be Kind to Your Web Footed Friends" (to the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner.") And I planned to open with "My Aunt Came Back," which I had heard Jackie sing a few times and thought would be a good ice breaker.

As you may or may not be able to read on the flier the program was marketed for 8 and under. It was my dearest hope that school age children would come. It rained here for the first time in a week or two. School age children did not come. A few small children came. So here is what actually happened.

I started with my old storytime start-up song, "Sing, Sing, Sing With Me" (to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat.") Then, once they were with me we tried "My Aunt Came Back" (it worked okay because the parents were very participatory). I jumped strait to Duck for President since it was the shortest book, sung "Yankee Doodle" while marching, talked about some of the things in So You Want to be President? while showing pictures but did not read it, sang "Be Kind to Your Web Footed Friends," and then went into the craft.

The craft was making an American flag out of pre-cut pieces of construction paper. They had to draw on the stars, though, since cutting out lots of little stars would have been pretty difficult. There was also a Geroge W. coloring sheet. The White House website doesn't have a coloring sheet of Obama yet.

Overall, I think I managed a pretty good save. The program was meant for children older than the ones I got, but those kids were interested and I did what I could for them.

What are people in Norwich saying about America's outgoing president?

Before I started reading Duck for President I asked the kids, "Do you think a duck could be president?"
A dad who was just arriving said, "One is."
Not sure if that was a lame duck reference or something else.

I explained that we had George W. Bush coloring sheets because he is still the current president. In answer to groans, the children's librarian invited the patrons to deface the pictures as they wished. This is really funny because as a child I acquired a laminated picture of George H. W. Bush so that I could deface it, then wipe it off and do it again! (I blamed him for the endangerment of the spotted owls.) No one actually defaced any pictures of any of the Bushes today. They were much more interested in the flag craft, even though it was more complicated.

Parting comments:
The children's librarian really liked the song "My Aunt Came Back" and intends to use it herself in the future!