Election Day

Today we voted. The people in our country came out in record numbers to vote for a new president. We had a mock election in our classroom this morning to help my second graders better understand how the process works and how many citizens are involved. I began by reading them a book titled WOODROOW T. WASHINGTAIL FOR PRESIDENT on Monday. The story is told in rhyme and the main character in this book is a mouse. The book expounds upon the virtues of Woodrow the mouse (qualities that U.S. citizens like to see in their president). The book takes Woodrow through the process of becoming a candidate, campaigning, the convention, more campaigning, the election, and finally Inauguration Day. What's interesting in this tale is that the main character's running mate is a female, just like the running mate of John McCain.

The social studies homework for last night was to have parents help my second graders fill out a registration form because I wanted them to understand that a citizen has to be registered before they can vote. Parents were also invited to share with their child which candidate they would vote for and explain to them why they would vote for that candidate. This morning children assumed variuos citizens' roles in our classroom polls. One group was given the registration forms to check to see if the voter was registered. (To my delight, all children returned their forms.) Another group had the voters sign in with their signatures. A third group passed out the ballots with the names of 5 candidates (the two major parties, the Constitution Party, the Green Party, and the Libertarian Party, all in alphabetical order by last name). After all the children voted in secret behind a screen and placed their ballot in the ballot box, a fourth group read the name of the candidate that was marked on each ballot. The final group made tally marks on the SMART Board to record the votes. Before voting began and before all votes were tallied, children were cautioned to respect each other's votes because each vote was right for that individual. There was no right or wrong candidate. Children were told that as a democracy we are to respect each other's beliefs, even when they are different from our own. I was pleased that the children took these words to heart since there had been arguing when they first arrived to school. After all the votes were counted, Barack Obama won by two votes in our class. We'll see tomorrow if our class voted like the nation.