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Utah lawmakers are "thinkin' Lincoln" today with a little help from a group of 60 fifth-graders.
Fifth-graders from Davis County's appropriately named Lincoln Elementary School got a big honor today. They were invited to recite the Gettysburg Address at the State Capitol in honor of the 16th President's 200th birthday.
The students are from Laura Waldron and Susan Joyce's classes.
What do they like the best about Lincoln? "His hat," said one. Another girl giggled, "I would probably say his hat."
But beyond fashion, they know his speech word for word, and Mrs. Waldron says they know what it means, too.
"We're just getting into the Civil War right now and human rights, and I think they appreciate that he was a great president and that he helped in creating the nation that we have now," she said. Waldron says the students worked to memorize the speech over the course of two weeks. In order to help them keep their place, all of the students recited the beginning and the end, and the two classes alternated sections in the middle of the speech.They were invited to Utah's Capitol Hill by Davis County Rep. Julie Fisher, and an Abraham Lincoln impersonator led them in starting the speech.
Other Lincoln Elementary schools are also remembering Abraham Lincoln today in a variety of ways. The Granite District's Lincoln Elementary will serve birthday cake to Abe Lincoln himself tonight during family night from 5 to 7 p.m. At Salt Lake's Lincoln Elementary, it's picture day today, so everyone is wearing their Lincoln T-shirts tomorrow instead. And at Ogden's Lincoln Elementary, the fifth grade is holding a patriotic program tonight.
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
