America+Votes+How+Our+President+is+Elected+Reinforcing+Activity

After reading //America Votes: How Our President is Elected,// you could reinforce the content of this book by holding a mock election with students.

Procedures: Each class must elect a candidate. Every student creates a platform, and the students that would like to run in the mock election present them to the class. Each class period then selects one candidate to run in this mock election. Once a candidate is selected for that class period, the entire class becomes supporters of this candidate. The class is then broken into groups and each group creates a different aspect of the candidate’s platform. The teacher explains what propaganda is, and the students will make some for their candidate.

Each class works on the platform and propaganda for a couple days. Once the students finish these, they present them to different teachers throughout the building and try to sway their vote.

The students create a ballot box that will be set up in the office, library, or classroom. The teacher will also make a mock ballot and review what a ballot looks like with the students. Copies of this ballot will be next to the ballot box. Each participating teacher has one vote and votes at the end of the week. The class period with the most votes wins the election and some sort of prize.

This process shows students the election process from another angle and helps them understand how officials are elected in our government.

Other Social Studies Standards that this book could teach include:Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities