President's Day story by Anne Rockwell (Author), Lizzy Rockwell (Illustrator)

President

s Day written by

Anne

Rockwell

and pictures by ICI

Rockwell

President

s Day is when we celebrate the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln they were both born in February many years ago they were both very great

president

s of our country the United States of America grown-ups vote every four years to choose the

president

of the United States each person votes for the person he or she believes will make the best leader they don't all agree so whoever gets the most votes

becomes

president

we decided to put on a

President

's Day assembly program telling the rest of our school some things we learned about some of our

president

s we worked hard getting ready painting and cutting stirring and cooking flour paste and tearing strips of newspaper for paper mache Sam Evans Sarah and Michiko wore the mountain of paper mache we made hello everybody we are Mount Rushmore they said all together the faces of

President

George Washington Thomas Jefferson Theodore Roosevelt

and Abraham Lincoln are carved 60 feet high on our hard granite cliff now each of these

president

s will tell you about himself I was George Washington that's because my birthday is the same as his I was born on February 22nd six years ago but George Washington was born more than 200 years ago good morning I said in a deep voice I led the American people when they fought to be free from the King of England we won so I was elected the first

president

of a brand-new country called the United

States of America Abraham Lincoln was very very tall and Charlie is the tallest kid in our class I am the 16th

President

of the United States he said I kept the United States together when it split into I said a house divided against itself cannot stand and I meant it we fought a long war to keep our nation together that's why it's called the United States of America United means many stick together like one Nicholas is a good writer who can always think of just the right words when he

came on stage wearing a red wig with a short pigtail in back he just sat at a desk writing with a pen made of a feather everyone waited patiently while he scrolled and scratched his head crumpled pieces of paper and tossed them into the wastebasket finally he cried out at last it's done he stood up back to the audience and said good morning my name is Thomas Jefferson third

President

of the United States I wrote something called the Declaration of Independence that told why we wanted to be

free from England hmm it's pretty good if I do say so myself he started to read what he wrote but suddenly Jessica came galloping out on a hobby horse good morning she shouted my name is Theodore Roosevelt but you can call me teddy I am the 26th

President

of the United States when I was a kid I was sick a lot and couldn't go out to play but when I grew up I was healthy and strong and loved the outdoors I wanted a lot of this big beautiful land to always be wild that's why we set

aside more land to be national parks where plants and animals would always be wild Pablo and Evelyn came out on stage carrying the long mural we have painted of giant redwood trees the Grand Canyon Old Faithful spouting and animals in the Everglades the rest of us joined them Mount Rushmore George Washington Abraham Lincoln Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt on his horse we bowed while everyone in the audience clapped for a long time back in the classroom we had an election everyone wrote the

name of someone who'd make a good leader on a piece of paper I wrote Pablo's name because he's smart and never mean we put each piece of paper in a box this is Matt of counted the votes the person whose name appeared most often would win the election guess what I won just like George Washington Thomas Jefferson Abraham Lincoln Teddy was the world and today's

President

of the United States now I'm the

president

of mrs. Maddox class when I grow up I want to be the first woman

president

of the United States of America wouldn't that be great after all I have the same birthday as George Washington