Inauguration Day: Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Today was Inauguration Day! We went into the cafeteria to watch President Obama get sworn in. Before that, we saw Vice President Biden get sworn in. We also watched a singer named Aretha Franklin sing My Country Tis of Thee. There were many people who went to Washington D.C. to take part in this special event. Zoe thought it was cool because it was the first time she got to watch a new president take office. Mia and Nolan were surprised that Obama became our president. They were surprised (in a good way) because all of the other presidents had light skin. When we were learning about Martin Luther King Jr. last week, we realized that people are different and people are the same. The parts that make us different from each other don’t mean that they’re bad, or right, or wrong. It was frustrating and sad to learn that it used to be okay to treat people differently because of the color of their skin. We all agreed that we feel proud to live in a country where people are now treated fairly and equally. After watching the swearing in and inaugural speech, it was time for lunch!

In music, we read a story called I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow and then we played freeze dance.

We went to the library today. Mr. Tanenbaum wasn’t there because he was in Washington D.C. We looked on his blog this morning. Mrs. Edler read us a story called Henry’s Freedom Box. We also read the Gingerbread Baby. Carly and Kaitlyn listened to A Chair for My Mother using headphones. Then everyone who brought their books back got to have book exchange.

The class read Time for Kids. It was all about life inside of the White House. We learned that there are 13 bedrooms, 7 bedrooms, and 3 kitchens. There is also a special place called the Oval Office, where the president does his work. We talked about how the families are different and alike us. Many of us like to do lots of similar kinds of things just like the first children do.