The Story Pirates present:

IF I WERE PRESIDENT

Send us your kids’ ideas about how our leaders can solve problems, and we’ll share our favorites on an upcoming Story Pirates podcast or social media channel.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE GRAPHIC ORGANIZER HERE!

The recent election has everyone talking, including kids.

It’s not always easy to know how to talk to kids about current events, so we want to share with you our ‘If I Were President’ worksheet (otherwise known as a graphic organizer) that we’ve been using in classrooms. With it, we’re hoping to give voice to kids’ ideas about how our leaders can solve problems.

Until the inauguration in January, we are going to be asking kids to come up with a problem that the President would have to solve (realistic or imaginary) and ask them how they would solve it if they were President.

Below, you’ll find a the downloadable worksheet, some examples from kids we’ve worked with and a description of how we introduce it when we use it in the classroom.  We’d like to give a special shout out to Bronx Charter School for the Arts for helping us develop this project.

 

SHARE YOUR KIDS’ IDEAS WITH THE WORLD

Parents, share your kids’ ideas by posting your their worksheets to Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #StoryPiratesIfIWerePresident

OR - you can send us your completed worksheets to [email protected] and we’ll share our favorites in an upcoming Story Pirates podcast.

 

HOW TO GET STARTED:

Here’s how we describe the project to kids in the classroom:

Presidents have to deal with lots of problems. HUGE problems. Problems that affect whole communities, whole countries, or even the entire world. And right now, the people who will be president in the future are, in fact…

(wait for it)...

KIDS. Some of the kids reading these words right now might even grow up to be the president! So it’s never too early for kids to start planning, and imagining: “how would I solve a huge problem if I were president?” Fortunately, we have a graphic organizer to help you think about this question.

How do you choose a problem? There are a couple of different ways:

You might choose a realistic problem that you know people in the world are dealing with right now.

On the other hand, the problems of the future might be so weird, nobody has even thought of them yet. You can use your imagination to come up with a crazy, unusual problem that has never actually happened...yet.

Then, no matter what the problem is, (whether it’s realistic, or completely from your imagination), we want you to find a creative way to solve it. You have permission to get weird: the presidents of the future will need to come up with new, unusual ideas that have never been tried before, so you might as well get started practicing now!

Here are some examples of problems and solutions that other kids have come up with:

“The air is contagious”. Sometimes there are a lot of people getting sick, and the president has to help deal with the problem. This kid decided that everyone should get a gas mask, to stop the germs from getting in!

“People are throwing avalanches off of buildings”. Wow! That’s a crazy one! What should the president do if people are throwing avalanches off of buildings? This kid thought the president should fly in and tell those people they’re not being nice. Direct, and to the point.

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“Scary dragons spilling hot hot fiery coffee on people”. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! We knew the problems of the future might be scary, but did they have to be this terrifying?? What could the president possibly do to stop this? Well fear not! In the future, the president will be able to get fast eyeballs to beat up the dragon.

“People being racist”. This kid wanted to deal with a very realistic problem, but had a very unusual way to solve it: let everyone have dinner together! If everyone spent some time talking with people who looked different from them, maybe we’d all realize we had more in common than we thought.

We look forward to seeing what kinds of interesting problems and creative solutions you come up with!


IF I WERE PRESIDENT: AUDIO

We want YOU to record your own version of the song “If I Were President” and share it with us! Share it on YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook with the hashtag #ifiwerepresident or record a version to send to us for a podcast episode that will feature some of your masterpieces. 

If you want to be featured in the podcast episode, just follow the steps below!

Full Demo

Sheet Music

Lyrics

Instrumental Track

Click Track

FIRST!!!

You should learn the song by downloading the Full Demo recording and the Lyrics Sheet.  Or, if you know how to read music, you can download the full sheet music.  Whatever work for you!

SECOND!!!

You should record your version of the song. You can record the song on a phone, with other recording equipment, or just take a video of yourself. To help you out we’ve included a link to an Instrumental Track, which includes just the backup piano. This version is great if you just want to record yourself singing. There is also a link to a “click track” which is the same thing with a background click to help you stay in time.  The click track is helpful if you’ll be playing an instrument.  Either way, we recommend that you listen to the back ground track on headphones while you record your own version to help you stay in tune and in time. Or, if you’re a pro and want to make a version that’s entirely your own, that’s fine too! Again, whatever works for you!!!

THIRD!!!

Send the recording to us by filling out the submission form below (this form should only be filled out by a parent or guardian over the age of 18. To view our privacy policy, click here).  There you can upload your audio file or share a link to a YouTube video. In order to be featured on our podcast, you must fill out and upload our standard release form, which can be downloaded here.

Fill out my online form.