This week and Monday of next week we are learning all about voting!! I first thought that this may be a little difficult for them to understand, but let me tell you...they are doing amazing!!!
I started my lesson this morning by showing them the online video on elections by Let's Find Out Scholastic magazine (You can sign on and show your students HERE). Then, they read their own Let's Find Out at their reading group.
The story had some wonderful vocab words-candidates, polling place, booth, ballot, etc. We made sure to go over all of them and I will be using those terms all week!
Then, I explained to students that in order to vote you have to register. I showed them my voter's registration card and then we made our very own!
How cute are they!! They are from Glady's Election Unit that you can find here. I had my students find their own birthdays on our birthday chart and copy it down. Then I wrote the school name and 'kindergarten' on the board for them to copy. I really wanted them to do all the work :)
I explained to the children (as stated in the Let's Find Out magazine) that when it is time to vote, you have to show your voters card. I told them that I will check their name off to make sure they only vote one time, then they will enter the booth. The booth is private so they can vote secretly. My children took this SO seriously and they were SO excited to get started!!
I am using different questions to vote, from Deedee Will's Survey Says unit. Then, I just created different ballots to go with her questions.
Look how cute they are in our booth...
Later in the day, I opened the ballot box and we graphed the results. Today, pizza was the winner for the best food!! :) Yum!
Every day we will vote for something new, then on Monday of next week we will make our choice for President.
I will say, some of my students were making opinions on Obama and Romney today--I was cracking up! In the Let's Find Out magazine it talks about how Obama likes basketball and Romney likes skiing. Then it said that Obama likes chili and Romney likes granola. Some of my students were so grossed out by the chili for some reason and decided that they liked Romney instead! I told them to hold off on any decisions until we learned more--and to make sure they kept their opinion a secret!! Too funny!