Dragon's Den Curriculum: voting

Showing posts with label voting. Show all posts

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Why Vote?

Voting is the core of our democracy, yet the United States ranks toward the bottom of all democracies in the number of citizens who actually vote. That means we all need to do a better job teaching kids why voting is so important. I hope the great videos below are helpful!

This is a beautifully done short video on the importance of voting, done with simple posters. Perfect to start a discussion on the importance of voting!

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Upper Elementary students are all about celebrities…this celebritiy video gets to the root of why it's important to vote!

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This three minute Ted Talk is all about why we vote on a Tuesday. Kids will love this!

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LOVE this one! It's the history and importance of voting done in a really engaging cartoon style!

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If you are interested in holding a mock election in your classroom, don't miss this great post from civics.

Happy Voting!

Get everything you need to teach about elections in this resource. Click on the cover to learn more.

Monday, August 25, 2014

10 Ideas to Help You Teach About Elections!

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:

Surf With Uncle Sam!

Do you need a resource to help you teach about elections? Check out the resource below by clicking the cover.

Friday, August 22, 2014

We the People

Knowing how our government works is SO important for kids to know! They need to know not only how it works, but how they can make their own voices heard! It's what being a citizen is all about! In fact, when public education was started in our country, one of the main goals was to prepare students to be citizens. My goal has always been to make government a little more fun with lots of roll playing, and fun activities.

To help out a bit, I am including a fun freebie here to help you in your government study, plus some great links! Hope your kids enjoy them! Click on the link below the picture to pick it up in google.drive

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This site from iCivics is perfect for older students. The games are more involved and make kids really think! Perfect for stations, or to play as a class together...discuss while you play. Includes crisis of nations, Do I have a right? and Bill of Rights Edition.

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All the goodies you need to teach government are right here, including the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution of the U.S. and more! It includes the background of the document, a kids version and SO much more! This is an amazing resource!