Shout All About America: Classroom Elections for Kiddos!

The 2008 election project was very special to me.  After spending two years as a Title I teacher, I finally had my very first classroom.  I was also appointed to a district team on brain-friendly teaching to help increase rigor & relevance in our schools.  The dialogue we had about how the brain learns significantly impacted the way I approached teaching the election.  Once my gears started turning, I asked a good friend of mine to team up, and the rest is history! 

Depending on how deeply you want to dive in, you may decide to organize a school-wide mock election like we did...or you could definitely pull this off at the classroom level!  (That's the plan this time around.)  Although we never delved too deeply into political affiliations, we did want to expose our kiddos to real issues and vote for real candidates, even if it was slightly watered down.

As a result, our students conducted playground polls, ran polling centers, campaigned, & listened to speakers who worked for both major political parties.  (We asked for both speakers to focus on what it’s like to volunteer and what kind of work goes into running a campaign at the local level.  We asked that they did not talk about the actual platforms with our kiddos, and we asked parents to talk with their children at home.)  In some ways, we had to tread lightly.

Flash forward a few years!  I jazzed up my old files and created "Shout All About America: Classroom Elections for Kiddos!"  This updated & revamped packet outlines how we implemented our mock election, but I do realize that every school is different. What worked for us may require tweaking in order to work for you.  I hope you can use the majority of the contents without reinventing the wheel, but if you have to tweak something, I hope this gives you a starting place.  I did a lot of activities that are included in Cara Carroll’s PintSized Presidential Fun file…so rather than recreating my old documents, I’m going to be using her super cute unit as another supplement.  You'll definitely want to check it out!  

It is also important to note that I pulled resources from various places that I cannot share in this download.  I pulled resources from Scholastic News, abcteach.com, old Mailbox magazines, and edhelper.com.  I am 100% positive that there are greater resources out there this election year than I stumbled upon in 2008. (Thank you Blogger and TpT!  Wooo Hooo!) I am sure that you will be able to find other supplemental resources through blogs, Pinterest, and Google to make this unit your own.  For starters, you may want to check out my Social Studies board on Pinterest!

Additionally, you should know that this file is a zip-file with a 99 page pdf and two editable PowerPoint files (with 8 more pages that can be customized to meet your own needs).  I am so excited to be able to share it with all of you, so I am going to be putting it on sale today through tomorrow for 20% off HERE!  I hope you can use it with your little peanuts!  Happy Sunday!