Election Day

Today was a fun "election day" in first grade! For the past few weeks we have been talking a lot about the election and the importance of voting. We participated in the FBISD mock election, though I felt that a lot of the kids didn't quite understand what they were voting for. Some of them asked their parents and voted with them, but some simply looked at the pictures and picked based on looks. A few students made comments such as, "I voted for her because she's a girl". Given that they are 6 or 7, this is expected, but I really wanted to make the idea of voting for leaders more relevant for them.

We started off our lesson today reading Grace for President. After reading, someone in our class asked why we didn't have a class president. I reminded the students that we have something similar, though it changes every week: our Star Stallion. We talked about how Ms. Coburn and I usually pick the weekly Star Stallion, but because it was election day they were going to have a chance to elect their next class Star Stallion.  We began the election process by brainstorming a list of characteristics we felt a Star Stallion should have. This included traits such as: respectful, honest, caring, hard working, a good leader, etc. Next, each student had to choose one candidate from our class that they felt met the criteria of a Star Stallion and create a campaign poster. On their poster they had to include at least 2-3 traits that friend had that made them a good candidate. I love all the thought they put into their posters.

I have since tallied up the votes and our next class Star Stallion will be announced on Monday during the morning announcements. Everyone cannot wait to find out who it is! What an honor to be elected as the Star Stallion by our very own class!

Quick side story: later in the day I pointed out that one of our friends was doing something really great. Another student leaned in over and whispered, "that's why I voted for him for Star Stallion". I love how the kids really understood that an election isn't about popularity or friendship, that it's about issues and who makes the best leader.

Hopefully some of our friends are watching the election coverage with their parents tonight. I'm sure we will have lots to discuss tomorrow!