Election Day

Tuesday was a pretty exciting day…it was Election Day.  Our school was full of visitors, coming to vote for the next president of the United States of America.  As kindergartners, we learned that we are not yet old enough to vote for president.  Yet, we were very curious and really wanted to understand the voting process.  So we decided to have our own classroom election and we voted for our most favorite animal.

We settled on four choices:  cat, dog, monkey and rabbit.  We learned that when we vote for something, we need to be informed and learn about all the options.  We then form an opinion and vote for the one we believe is best.  It is really important to make our own decisions and not vote for something just because our friend does.  We also learned that voting is a private thing…you don't have to share what or who you vote for.  The most difficult part of the process was accepting the winner, whether or not it was our choice.  We were ready to give it a try!

    

We examined our ballots and learned how to choose one option by marking the box next to the animal we like best.  We also prepared a place to tally the voting results.

   

We filled out our ballots privately at our table spots and placed the ballot in the basket when we were done.  Then each of us got a chance to retrieve a ballot from the basked and record it on our chart using a tally mark.

   

   

When we were finished, this was the result:

the students in our class have spoken.  Our favorite animal is a dog.  Dog won the election by a narrow margin.  The best part of this activity was that these kindergarten students realized that their choice may not have won, but they all participated in the process and it is important for us to do our part.  Although we may not always agree with the opinions of others, we are learning that we need to be respectful of other's opinions.  That is what makes our kindergarten community so great!