Kids for President Visits Huntington
Child's Play Touring Theatre visited Huntington School District third and fourth graders and gave the youngsters a belated taste of last fall's presidential election and what it's like to work in the Oval Office.
Sponsored by Huntington's arts-in-education program the "Kid's for President" writing project gave students an opportunity to write stories about what they would do if they were elected president.
The Huntington School District's AIE committee presents programs designed to enhance the study of literature, humanities, mathematics, science, fine and performing arts, health and character education.
Child's Play Touring Theater visited Huntington's four primary school buildings over a recent two day period. The actors presented the best original stories written by the third and fourth graders.
The program was originally slated for last fall to coincide with the presidential election, but Hurricane Sandy intervened and forced the traveling theater visits to be rescheduled.
Students at Flower Hill, Jefferson, Southdown and Washington primary schools were enthusiastic audiences for the touring actors. At Jefferson, Principal Valerie Capitulo-Saide and the school's PTA invited the families of the students' whose stories were chosen to be acted out to attend the unexpected performances.
"We successfully surprised our winners with the special performances," Ms. Capitulo-Saide said. "All students happily received certificates and some of our Jefferson students received honorable mention certificates." A similar scene played out in each of the district's other primary buildings.
Students submitting the stories that were chosen to be acted out by Child's Play Touring
Theater include:
Jefferson Primary School
• Jordan Cook
• Sophia Matheus
• Katelin Smith
• Caelan Clayton
Southdown Primary School
• Luke Maffei
• Julie Rogel
• Sarah Biernacki
Washington Primary School
• Martin Maxim
• Rebecca Hoffman
• Kiera Francis
Flower Hill Primary School
• Alyson Baker
• Kyle Colleluori
• Chloe Wheeler
AIE committee members are local parent volunteers. District Director of Fine and Performing Arts Joan R. Fretz advises and helps coordinate the committee, which receives support from the Huntington Council of PTA's and the district.
The AIE committee researches and plans cultural arts and exploratory programs linked directly to core curriculum for every grade level. Students participate in a wide range of experiences from seeing their own pieces of creative writing performed by professional actors and chatting with famous authors to working with real scientists and "meeting" characters from American history.