CHICAGO — With his namesake center due to open in just over six months, former President Barack Obama is in Chicago this week to see how construction is coming along — plus make a few other stops to promote and preview the multimillion-dollar endeavor, including a surprise visit to a South Side school.

On Tuesday, a group of 24 students from Washington Park’s Burke Elementary School on a field trip to the Bessie Coleman branch of the Chicago Public Library in the Woodlawn neighborhood were welcomed by the former president, who entered a community room wearing a red Santa hat and a smile, according to a pool report of the visit.

“Everybody seems to be working hard,” Obama greeted the students, who were participating in a story time and coloring activity as he walked in. “I thought we were gonna have a little Christmas party, and everybody’s doing their homework. What’s happening?”

The students ranging from kindergarten through second grade exclaimed “Barack Obama!” as he approached.

Obama has been in town for the past couple of days checking on the progress of his Obama Presidential Center, according to the Obama Foundation. The visit comes after Obama recently announced that the center, which has been in the making for a decade, would open next June.

“So that y’all don’t have to bring your coats up,” Obama said last week during a visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.

Spanning 19 acres, the $850 million center in Jackson Park will feature a main building and museum; a forum building that includes an auditorium, media suite and other programming rooms; a Chicago Public Library branch; and farther south, a 45,000-square-foot multipurpose athletic center.

Dubbed “Home Court,” the athletic center is the first of the center’s four buildings to wrap up construction. The foundation hosted events at Home Court Sunday and Monday for board members and supporters from the corporate, political and nonprofit world, including Mayor Brandon Johnson, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and longtime associates John Rogers and Arne Duncan.

Events included a private “fireside chat” featuring Chicago native Jennifer Hudson, according to a social media post from Welch. Obama was also set to address a private Commercial Club meeting Tuesday night.

Discussing his hopes for the center as it starts to take shape after years of delays and legal fights, Obama in Arkansas last week put forward a vision for “a place where the public gathers for a range of things that puts them face-to-face with each other.”

“(Where they’ll) meet and be in dialogue and conversation and exposed to new ideas with each other,” he said.

Obama especially highlighted the center’s focus on investing in civic leadership among young people.

“Our job and the center’s job is to train them,” he said.

That vision was in full display as he visited with students on Tuesday.

The event served as a preview of programming planned for the center’s new public library branch, the foundation said in a news release.

Telling the students he stopped by because he heard they’d been doing a lot of reading, Obama sat down to read them a story. Perched in a low chair while the youngsters settled onto the floor, Obama read Karyn Parsons’ “Flying Free: How Bessie Coleman’s Dreams Took Flight.” The book was purchased from Call & Response, a Black woman-owned bookstore in the Hyde Park neighborhood.

Through the reading, Obama fielded queries from his audience. He also paused for his own questions, asking the students if anyone would like to learn how to fly a plane and what they wanted to be when they grew up. To the latter, aspirations spanned from veterinarian to firefighter — and even president.

“You’ve got a long way to go,” Obama said, “but I think you could be a president … it’s possible.”

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—The Tribune’s A.D. Quig contributed.

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