In the spirit of Election Day, the absolutely adorable Kindergarten students at Dogwood Elementary School held their own Election Day, yesterday. On November 7th, Kindergartners at Dogwood Elementary read and discussed the books “Otto Runs for President” by Rosemary Wells and “Duck for President” by Doreen Cronin. After learning all about the election and voting process, each student completed their own voting ballot, choosing a favorite candidate for president: Duck or Otto.
While each book covers very different lessons, they gave the students a chance to learn about voting in a democracy, where every vote matters. By comparing and contrasting each book through discussion, each student was able to form their own opinion to chose and then vote.
About the Books:
Rosemary Wells’ book, “Otto Runs for President” is a story about a big school election at the Barkadelphia School. The most popular girl, Tiffany and Charles, an all-star sport run a mudslinging campaign against eachother, spending a fortune on marketing materials and wild promises like skateboarding in the halls and lounge chairs instead of desks. Otto, decides to run by asking his school mates what they really want and runs a clean and friendly campaign. The book teaches young school children how opponents lose sight of the true meaning of running for office and how negative campaigning can hurt everyone involved.
“Duck for President” by Doreen Cronin is a little different story about a group of animals living on a farm. Each animal has a daily chore list to perform to help Farmer Brown. Duck decides he doesn’t like to do chores so he decides to run an election and defeats the farmer. After Duck realizes being in charge of farm is hard work, he runs for Governor. Duck wins and becomes the Governor, but running a state is no fun and gives him a headache. Duck then runs and wins the Presidential election, but ends up leaving the Vice President in charge to go back to the Farm to write his autobiography. The story teaches young children about campaigning, voter recounts and just how much work is involved running a Country, State and even a Farm.