We Voted!!

We took a break from bugs today to make the kids a little more civic minded and teach them about voting! They always think it's neat to learn about the things that grown-ups are talking about.....and grown-ups are certainly talking about this vote!!

Voting is a hard concept to introduce to kids. We started with a Scholastic book called The Pledge of Allegiance. The only words are the pledge of allegiance and it has some really great pictures. The kids all knew that they lived in the United States of America, so we talked about how in our country grown-ups get to vote who is going to be in charge and make decisions. It was really cute when I said today the people would be making decisions about who would be in charge in Charlotte and the kids immediately nominated Ms. Ellen! I think she would be great in charge too.....but her schedule is kinda full!

Another moment of confusion came when Ms. Ellen introduced the word "poll" as one of our vocabulary words. This, as you know, is slightly different from the first things the kids thought of....THE NORTH POLE! The discussion almost lost focus and headed off in it's own direction.....a Santa/Christmas direction.....but we rescued it just in time!!

The highlight of the day was our trip across the street to the poll. We had already talked about our flag and what it looked like, so when the kids spotted the flag pole, we KNEW we were in the right place! A few at a time, the kids got to go inside and check out this "voting" thing! We told them that they could tell which grown-ups had voted by the special stickers on their shirts. We gave them all "grown-up stickers" of their own for doing such a great job on our mini Out and About!

We even held our own vote on the walk back to school....lunch or art. Lunch won by a landslide. I think it was an easy vote! Even the grown-ups were in agreement on this one!!

AND......What a beautiful day outside for Ms. Michelle's last day! We met her in the courtyard and she had SO many fun things set up for the kiddos to do! They were so excited to give her the cards and presents, they needed several reminders to wait until the end!! The love giving presents.....and they LOVE Ms. Michelle!!