First Graders Can Vote Too

Needless to say, this was a monumental moment in American history. The school was abuzz with election fever, and there was talk about voting everywhere I turned. So, in the spirit of the election, I decided to transform our classroom into a voting community. In the classroom, right next to the door, I set up a sign-in table, and the children were to find their name on our class roster and sign next to their names before they went into the hallway to cast their ballots. Two students were sitting at the table to help the other children find their names. One student helped kids with first names starting with A-M, and the other student helped kids with names starting with N-Z. I set up 2 private voting booths in the hallway, complete with drapes to ensure privacy. At each booth was a strip of paper, a pen, and a piece of paper with the names of the presidential candidates written on it to help the children spell the candidates' names correctly. Right outside of each booth, I delegated a student helper, so if any voter needs help writing a name, they can peek their head out and ask their helper for assistance. After they've written their name on their strip, they put it in the ballot box right outside of our door. I also delegated a student ballot guard to make sure nobody tampers with the ballots. Then they were to come back into the classroom and continue their math. I had one student count the ballots and write down the results, which I transferred onto a graph to the give the children a visual. Here were our results.