Class Election Day Activities
Littles can and should learn about Election Day! Obviously skip talking about candidates, policy and change, but focus on the basic act of voting for the things that we want! I love doing a Class Treat Election on Election Day, and this always ends up being a favorite day among students! Grab some cookies or potato chips (or a treat of your choice) and let your class put their campaign skills to the test! I’ll show you how I run this fun Social Studies from start to finish. You can grab everything in my Class Election Kit Here!
Choose Your Candidates!
Before your class election, you’ll need to take a trip to the grocery store to grab the candidates for your election. My kit includes ballots for Oreo Vs. Chips Ahoy, Wavy Lays Vs. Regular Lays, Salty Vs. Sweet, and it also includes an editable ballot if you’d like to enter your own candidates (maybe you don’t want to use food, but you want to use classroom rewards instead. Ex: extra indoor recess Vs. extra outdoor recess).
I always do Oreos Vs. Chocolate Chips Ahoy but you can make the choice that would be best for your class!
Election Day Classroom Set Up
On the day of our election, I have my room set up with the different voting and election signs in the doorway and around the room. I cover a large box in blue paper and cut a hole in the top and tape my ballot box or voting booth sign to the front. This helps to drum up excitement and curiosity before I even begin the Social Studies lesson later in the afternoon.
Explaining Voting and Elections
I always read the book I Voted by Mark Shulman (you can grab it here) to help students better understand how an election works. This book has good vocabulary and it explains the process very well. We discuss some of the vocabulary and what it means. Then I let my students know that we will be having our own election in class today!
Making Campaign Posters
After reading our book, I tell my students what we will be voting for, and I present the candidates (Oreo and Chocolate Chips Ahoy). I have my students design their own campaign posters and write about why others should vote for their candidate. If you have time, it’s fun to have a “gallery walk” where students walk around the room to see the finished campaign posters on each other’s desks.
Casting Our Ballots!
Once it’s time to vote, I have students come to the voting booth to cast their ballot. Afterwards, I tally up the ballots on the board while my students tally along with me on their graphing sheets. After we reveal the winner, we enjoy that candidate (chip, cookie, or whatever it is that won!) and we talk about how even if our candidate didn’t win, it’s still ok! We are thankful that we get the right to vote for our choice anyways!
Campaign Poster Examples and Graphing Page Examples
Above you can see some examples of campaign posters and graphing pages. It’s so much fun to campaign for candidates and tally the votes when everyone is finished casting their ballot! It’s such a fun activity that takes about 45 minutes total, and I think it’s super important to expose students to some rich Social Studies vocabulary even if they are young. This is always a class favorite and students talk about it for days afterwards! You can grab the entire Class Election Day Kit HERE! Happy voting!
