Election Day

Grave vs. Duck

To introduce the election process and what it means to vote we read our Weekly Reader which discussed who was running in the campaign this year and the four procedures to voting when you're an adult. I then read to the student "Grace for President" and "Duck for President" and we made a list on the board of the characteristics of each book that they liked. I modeled to the students what a campaign poster would look like by showing one of Obama and one of Romney that I found on PBS kids website. The students then were able to make their own campaign posters to represent which book they thought was the best.

 We then held out own voting session where each student received a ballot where they could vote for either Grace or Duck as the best book. They cast their ballot in the ballot box and then we posted the results after lunch. Grace won by a landslide!

The next day we read "What Does the President Do". We introduced the presidential candidates to the students not by their political "facts" but by fun facts about them posted by PBS Kids.

We held our own presidential election allowing the students to vote who they think would make the best president. Obama won with a vote of  20-3. To extend the lesson students were asked to write about what they would do if they were president. Then they drew a picture of themselves as the presidential candidate.