It doesn't matter if it is an election year or not, students need to know about elections. It's what makes our form of government work! Make learning about elections a lot more fun with these fun ideas:
1. If it's an election year, watch TV advertisements for two candidates running against each other. Ask students to do some research on each candidate on their own, then evaluate the truthfulness of the advertisements. Once your students have come to their own conclusions, check out what Politifact.com has to say at: http://www.politifact.com. Then discuss what was learned. How hard is it to find the truth?
2. Have a discussion on the influence of outside groups giving money to candidates, rather than relying on voters to donate money.
3. Have a classroom election
4. Hold an election scavenger hunt. This site has a great lesson plan for that: Education World: Election Scavenger Hunt
5. Research the rules for running/holding office in your state.
6. Choose a candidate at any level, and get into groups to form an election campaign
7. Research to find the most relevant issues in this election
8. Play Election Term Bingo. Get everything you need here: Election Term Bingo
9. Have groups of students choose one candidate and make a video TV advertisement for this candidate.
10. Create a flyer called: Why you should vote! Have students give their fliers to their parents before election day.
Lots of activities on this site to help your students understand about voting:
Do you need a resource to help you teach about elections? Check out the resource below by clicking the cover.
