Letters to the new President

I have found that instead of music, I like to listen to podcasts when I work out (I joined a gym for the first time ever 3 weeks ago!) I have a few "mommy" podcasts that I have listened to for awhile, but I found that since they only update once a week or so, I needed to expand my podcast list. So I downloaded This American Life podcast and listened to that today during my work out.  

On the episode today they were talking to different people about what the new President meant to them. Included in this episode was a group of kids in a literacy program that wrote letters to President-elect Obama and they have complied them into a book Thanks and Have Fun Running The Country: Kid's Letters to President Obama. 

I got to thinking, what a great project to have my students do in conjunction with the Presidents Day story I had already decided to read during my story time that week (well 2 weeks, I do a 2 week rotation of my story times since my school is so big).  I had decided to read a book about Abe Lincoln (had not decided exactly which one yet) and I thought this would be a great introduction, since Obama has mentioned himself reading biographies of Abe Lincoln (have you read THIS article in the NYTimes yet about our new President and his love of reading? You must!)

I am wondering how I am going to approach this with my younger Kindergarten students, but I am thinking they might be able to handle drawing a picture and the adults (the teachers, aide and I) can help them write what they want to say.

I also thought about binding them into a book from our school and sending them to the White House.  I am sure that there will be THOUSANDS of letters like this being sent to the White House in the coming months, but what kid wouldn't like to go home and tell his parents "I sent a letter to the President today"