Election Lessons (piog)

[KickButtMama]

Well with the election days away, I know many of us are working election info into our lesson plans.

We're doing lap-books. There are several free election Lap-books on the internet. Homeschool Share and Notebook Learning were my 2 fav's and we used them.

The following is my explanation of our Lesson Plan from my regular blog at Homeschool Blogger .

Well it's that time again, we'll be electing our new President in a couple of weeks. This can be a difficult concept for children to grasp on their own, but relatively simple to teach. Here's how I teach it to my early elementary children:

• I Have the kids take surveys from everyone they meet/what they see...My oldest son can make his own graphs, so we'll make a graph where he can ask people's favorite rain forest animal, favorite cartoon, etc. My youngest (who is 4) will have to point out what colors he sees throughout the day, so on Monday we'll look for green and red, and we'll mark them on the chart. At the end of the week we can see what was more popular.
• I printed a coloring book of the candidates, a voting box, the Democrat Donkey,the Republican Elephant, etc. 
• For my oldest (2nd - 4th grade) I printed electoral worksheets from Enchanted learning . I printed the word search, and the election grammar worksheet, and the early reader booklet.
• For my youngest I printed Ben Franklin's ABC's and cut it into a booklet.
• For both I printed (for me really) Ben Franklin's Explanation on the Election day, primary election and general elections.
• Then we read the book Clifford For President, and Duck For President

So, once we finished the Unit on the Election I put together a lap-book that the kids can work on hopefully while I'm standing in line waiting to vote.

DJ's Lap-book:

The Presidents: I've sectioned the presidents off into 8 categories for my oldest to list the presidents and the years of them in office:

The Early Republic: 1789 - 1829

• George Washington
• John Adams
• Thomas Jefferson
• James Madison
• James Monroe
• John Quincy Adams

The Jacksonian Democracy: 1829 - 1853

• Andrew Jackson
• Martin Van Buren
• William Harrison
• John Tyler
• James Polk
• Zachary Taylor
• Millard Fillmore

The Sectional Conflict: 1853 - 1881

• Franklin Pierce
• James Buchanan
• Abraham Lincoln
• Andrew Johnson
• Ulysses Grant
• Rutherford Hayes

The Gilded Age: 1881 - 1897

• James Garfield
• Chester Arthur
• Grover Cleveland
• Benjamin Harrison
• Grover Cleveland

The Progressive Era: 1897 - 1921

• William McKinley
• Theodore Roosevelt
• William Taft
• Woodrow Wilson

The Depression and World Conflict: 1921 - 1961

• Warren Harding
• Calvin Coolidge
• Herbert Hoover
• Franklin Roosevelt
• Harry Truman
• Dwight Eisenhower

Social Change & Soviet Relations: 1961 - 1989

• John Kennedy
• Lyndon Johnson
• Richard Nixon
• Gerald Ford
• Jimmy Carter
• Ronald Reagan

Globalization: 1989 - present

• George H. W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• George W. Bush

The Parties: Essentially this is a small flip book where DJ can give a brief description of the parties. (Democrat, Republican, Independent, and Green) 

Steps To Becoming A President: Essentially explaining the 5 main stages to becoming president:

1. Choose to run for office. Declare yourself to the public and begin describing what you would do with the position.
2. The Primary. Each party selects one person to run as their representative.
3. The General Election: Each adult over the age of 18 chooses their candidate
4. The Electoral College: Each state collects the votes from the people. Then chooses who 'won' that state. They then give that candidate a certain number of points - based on the # of people living in that state (so California would get more college points than Delaware because it's bigger and has many more citizens)
5. The Inaguration. The person choosen then takes an oath and is sworn into office for the next 4 years.

The next 3 will be flip tabs where DJ can give a brief explanation of their purpose.  

The Job of the President:

The Job of the Vice President:

The Job of the Cabinet:

The 3 Main Branches of Government:this is a small accordion booklet where DJ can give a brief description of the 3 main Branches of the Government and who represents them. (Executive, Judicial and Legislative)

The Seal of the President: DJ can color in the seal and give a brief history of the symbol.  

 

X-Man's Lap-book:

Much of X-mans book is coloring, as he really isn't ready to do much more.

Ben Franklin's ABC's: we cut his ABC's into a booklet about the government and included it in the lap-book.

Candidates: I found coloring pictures of the 3 main candidates, and printed them out,

Where does the president live? X-man can color a pic of the White House

How do we choose a president?This is a small flap-book which I've written the 5 stages of to becoming a president: Declare candidacy, Primary, General Election, Electoral College, and Innaguration It will have a pic of a voting box on the front, and X-man can add a pic for each stage

Here is some of the other info I've found.

National Student / Parent Mock Election

CyberBee's 2008 Election Lessons (a fab lesson plan site for election activities. including how to make a button, the election process, etc.)

PBS' Election Lesson(this is a great lesson plan for late middle - high school students. It's about analyzing the candidates.)

Montessouri Based Election Lesson Plan (quite possibly the best lesson plan I've ever seen on one subject! For ALL grades!)

Brief History of Barak Obama

Brief History of John McCain

Brief History of Sarah Palin

Brief History of Joe Biden

Election 2008 - all about the election and the candidates, including comparing their stances on the most popular issues.

[Joashbecna]

Thank you!