Friday, October 21, 2016

Elections in the Classroom

With the election coming up, there are so many ways that we can incorporate fun activities into our reading or social studies block without even getting too political with our students.  Our little ones don't need to know all of the details just yet, but introducing them to the election process is definitely important.

Here are some of my favorite election books.  They are just right for our little learners!

One way to introduce the election process is by hosting a little mock election in your classroom.  I am a sucker for Oreos.  I could eat a whole box in no time.  Chocolate or Golden you ask?  I don't discriminate... I love them both!  Give me chocolate with a glass of milk or 10 golden Oreos.  I will eat them all up!
Students will sample each cookie and decide which they like the best.  You could even have them make little campaign posters if you so wish!  Then, students vote on their favorite cookie.  This ballot freebie can be found HERE!  
If you want to go deeper with your election studies, Katie and I have created a one-week Rooted in Reading that would be perfect during November.  BUT, it can also be used when studying about presidents if you don't have time right now.  It goes along Grace for President by Kelly S. DiPucchio.

We've already seen some teacher's get started with this unit!  Look how beautiful this Presidential wall is in 3rdGradeLove's classroom!
 Grace for President is seriously the perfect book for teaching about elections.  It even goes into the electoral college in a way that students can understand.  I also just can't get enough of this main character.  She's determined, brave, and persistent. 
Digging deep into a text is always a key feature of RIR, whether we are having fun with a theme or not!  We also included a Non-Fiction reader about the President's job.

Of course we wanted to incorporate all of the elements of Rooted in Reading, so we also included grammar for the week.  It is more of a review week:  proper nouns, parts of speech, adjectives, and types of sentences.
 The vocabulary section has a fun spin on it with activities you haven't seen in any other Rooted in Reading units!  Some of the activities are election themed, so that makes it extra special!
We hope you enjoy the freebie and reading Grace for President!