Hip! Hip! Hooray! Election Day in Pre-K!

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations.

^^^Parts of this post are reprinted from an earlier post on little illuminations.

Tomorrow is ELECTION DAY here in the U.S.! Politicians will be campaigning, citizens will be voting. The children will have the day off, as most of the schools in our area are voting precincts. By Wednesday, we will know who will lead our country for the next four years. I've already voted, and was proud to take my youngest daughter with me to the polls for her very first time! I want my vote to be counted. I won't tell you who I voted for---that's personal, and quirky as it may be, I don't even share that with my husband or children. It's serious business, much too serious for kids. Or is it? While many of the political issues may be WAY over their heads, many will stand at their parents' side as ballots are cast. Children are curious about what is going on. I think voting (and making our individual voices heard and counted) is one of the MOST important things we can do as American citizens, and it is never too early to help the children understand how important voting is.

Lately, we've had a couple of discussions about politics. We talked about the reason we vote, and how that is our chance as a citizen to let our voice be heard. I relate it to the children's jobs at school, and how different people might do a job differently, using simple terms in a way they might understand. We vote on a variety of things in preschool, so they got the basic idea. 

We've set up a voting booth so the children can vote on who they think will win the election. These are pictures from one of our previous election booths in Pre-K.

We converted our puppet theater, using shoe boxes, pictures of the candidates, and index cards with a big sticker for the ballot. 

The children will go into the booth, away from where the other waiting children can see, and "cast their ballot". 

After voting, they'll even receive a sticker to show they have voted!

When all the ballots are cast, we will count and re-count the votes together, which makes for a fantastic little math lesson. 

I can't wait to tally up the children's votes later today and compare them to the actual winner of our Presidential Election. We'll see how accurate their predictions are when the final count is in tomorrow!

There are some great books about the democratic voting process for children. Here are a few of my favorites:

      

                                  

Please get out and VOTE!!!! Your vote counts! 

 Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!