Voting

For the beginning of the week, we are focusing on voting.  We started our day with our chit-chat message.

The students shared with a partner what they knew about the president and then they also thought and shared about what they know about voting.

We talked about the word democracy and why our country is a democracy.  I obviously don't get too deep into this topic, but I want the students to understand that we vote and choose who runs our government.

I love using this song I came up with last year to teach about voting and democracy.  We sang it together and then the students put it in their poetry journals.

Later on, we talked about the two main parties….democrat and republican.  I never have candidates' names on the ballots instead I just use the donkey and the elephant to represent the two parties.  Even last year during the presidential election I still just use the parties.  

We then had our own vote.  The students came in and had to check in like you really do when you go to vote.  Then I handed them their ballot, then went and voted and returned it to our ballot box.

When we finished, we created this graph.

 We tallied the votes to figure out who won.  We then had a little mini-lesson on greater than and less than.  I love introducing that topic with a graph.  :)

If you are planning on discussing voting or elections this week, check out these products.  Click on the images to take a closer look.

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Election and Voting

For the first few days of this week, we will be focusing on the election and most importantly voting.  I want my students to understand how important it is to vote.  Many of the parents at our school do not exercise their right to vote.  I am in no way, shape, or form, a political person at all!  But I do feel very strongly about everyone exercising their right to vote!  Here are a couple things we did in the classroom yesterday.

 

We made a chart about what the students know about voting and it was not a whole lot.

Then we sang our Voting Song many times.  To my surprise, the kids kept singing ALL. DAY. LONG.  At recess, at lunch, during centers, etc.  Then we added the song to our journals, "buttered" popcorn words, and illustrated.

Finally, we read our "Time to Vote" emergent reader, "buttered" popcorn words, and colored the pictures.  The students keep these books in a bag of books which they can read if they finish work early.

Both the "Time to Vote" emergent reader and the Voting Song are in my TPT store.  With the song, I have a republican and democratic ballot for students to use during your class mock election.    If you are interested in either one of these items, please visit my TPT store {here}.  Happy voting everyone!

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November Currently & Election Freebie

Linking up for November Currently this month.  Here it is:

As I was getting things prepped for this week, I realized I needed a little song or poem for voting.  So, I made one up :)  I just have noticed how well students learn with song.  I also made a ballot for students to use to vote.  If you are interested in this activity you can download it by clicking on the image below!

Have a great week!

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