Reinforcing+Activity+1.1


 * Reinforcing Activity: My Teacher for President **

__**Objective:**__ Students will be able to participate in electing a class president in order to understand what makes a good president/leader and how important voting is to support the issues you want taken care of.

-//My Teacher for President// //-//Class President Graphic Organizers -Ballots
 * Materials**

__**After Reading My Teacher for President **__ Discussion of My Teacher for President Elect a Class President After Electing Class President
 * What makes a good President? (believing in peace, being a leader, and greater good in mind)
 * What positive characteristics does Oliver believe his teacher displays that would make him a good President?
 * Explain that a good President not only claims to have positive characteristics, but display these characteristics in a public manner
 * Have students name issues within the school they believe need to be addressed (final say for these remains with the teacher (me) and the principal)
 * Explain the role of a Class President is to relay the wishes of the class to the teacher on school wide issues. (Examples of students’ wishes could include longer recess, different foods in the cafeteria, or new playground equipment)
 * Hand out graphic organizer attached to this page
 * The students will choose 5 characteristics or goals (things to be done around the school) they think a good class President should have or do and then draw a picture, with a small caption explaining the picture, of this characteristic/goal being played out. At least 2 of the pictures have to relate to changes that could occur in school not just a general presidential candidate. For example a student could say a good President would plant more trees and would have a picture of the President planting trees at the school or the President should be nice with a picture of the President shaking hands. (Write instructions on the board)
 * Ask for candidates for Class President
 *  They have 5 minutes to come up with a speech (If you want this to be more official [more time into it, more thought by the students on their speech] have previously asked for candidates or have the vote the next day. Also you could establish this whole election for the day as a demonstration of how an election would work.).
 * Remind the candidates that a good President keeps his or her promises. Remind the voters they want to vote for the person who they think will meet their interests the best and has the best presidential characteristics. They should vote for the person who has the same goals in mind as they do (Explain what voting is and that one must be 18 to vote in the United States).Hand out ballots.
 * While this is going on the rest of the students start working on their graphic organizer.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have the class vote on the class President. Each student can write down their top 2 choices on their ballot.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Count the votes and choose a winner (while counting the students will continue to work on their graphic organizer).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Explain to the class that it is important to participate in their government like they just did. Every vote matters. If you choose you can share how close the vote was and explain the significance of each vote with numbers to help the explanation. You can declare the winner now. Round of applause
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Encourage the students to share any of their opinions with the class President about things they want changed in the school because it is his or her job to share them with me (at an appropriate time such as recess or before class, not during class).

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Other Possible discussions to go with My Teacher for President: **__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sharing with the students some issues in Ohio and the United States. Choose a few topics to do a little research on to share with the students such as education, privacy laws or environmental laws. Select issues they can directly relate to/understand. For example, on the Ohio ballot is an amendment to add more clean energy. It is important to make this big picture connection because students need to understand how the quick election in class relates to the world at large. You could also have your students write down a definition for voting. Ask them to list a couple (2 or 3) reasons to vote or facts about voting that were discussed in class.

Grade 3 Economics, Financial Literacy 19. Making decisions involves weighing costs and benefits
 * __Other possible Ohio standards for this book:__**