Election Day in Pre-K

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, as I planned to be at NAEYC and away from my voting precinct. I wanted 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. 

Today, we had a discussion 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 related 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. Eventually, one of the kids said, "My dad's voting for so-and-so." Then, "well, my mom is voting for them, too!" During the informal conversation, it seemed that most of the kids thought Romney would be the winner.

Just for fun, we set up a voting booth so the children could vote on who they thought would win the election. 

We converted our puppet theater, using shoe boxes, pictures of the candidates, and index cards with a big sticker for the ballot. (No hanging chads here! ;) 

The children went into the booth, away from where the other waiting children could see, and "cast their ballot". 

After voting, they even received a sticker to show they had voted!

When all the ballots were cast, we counted and re-counted the votes together, which made for a fantastic little math lesson. 

Interesting~ when we discussed the candidates early on, the definitely leaned toward Romney, but the finally tally showed Obama a clear winner! Now, we'll see how accurate their predictions are when the final count is in tomorrow!

Thanks for visiting!  Be sure to leave a little "comment love"---I'd love for you to share your thoughts! 

Check out the little illuminations facebook fan page and see what we're sharing today!