Election Day Activities for the Primary Classroom

Kids love voting for their favorites- whether it’s picking a snack, choosing a game, or deciding on a class party. That’s why Election Day is a perfect opportunity to engage your students in learning about the voting process!

Let me share some Election Day activities to help make this special day memorable in your classroom!

Why Celebrate Election Day?

When you bring this real-world event into your classroom, it not only gets kids excited, but it teaches them valuable lessons!

making informed decisions
fairness
history of voting
being a responsible citizen
respecting others’ choices

It’s also a great opportunity for kids to share ideas and listen to others. Plus, kids often dream about being President, so why not use that to inspire discussions about leadership, responsibility, and how their choices can make a difference?

4 Key Lessons

There are many Election Day activities to choose from, but to keep things simple and engaging for K-2 students, here are four key lessons to focus on:

WHY do we vote?
WHO do we vote for? (making informed decisions)
WHO can vote?
HOW do we vote?

In order to cover these, I created a resource that breaks down each key idea into an easy-to-understand lesson. Here are the 4 lessons in my Election Day Pack.

LESSON 1: Why do we vote?

The key idea in this lesson is shown below (first few slides of Lesson 1).

It’s a great opportunity for students to learn about the concept of fairness and taking turns to make choices, just like in our classroom!

This lesson also discusses things we can vote for on a daily basis and gives a brief overview of voting for a president.

LESSON 2: Making a Choice

If I asked you if you preferred Citrullus or Malus, what would you say?

You’d likely want to know what they are before choosing one, right?

In this lesson, kids learn that it’s important to make an informed decision!

I remember having a class vote for the kind of party we would have when we filled our rewards jar. There were always a few kids who voted based on what their friends voted. You’ve probably seen that before as well!

We explore how people gather information about candidates and how they can vote for those who best align with their values.

Afterwards, students can practice making decisions on these ballot posters. . .

. . . and with a daily vote!

P.S. Citrullus and Malus are the genus names for. . . watermelon and apple! My vote is for Citrullus. 🙂

LESSON 3: Who Can Vote?

This lesson gives a simple timeline of key dates in voting history and the basic requirements to vote. It’s a great time to discuss how voting rights have changed over time, and why it’s important that everyone who is eligible gets a chance to vote, so their voice can be heard.

At the end of this lesson, students create registration cards to vote in tomorrow’s class election!

LESSON 4: Class Election!

The best way to help kids understand voting and elections is by having a classroom election day! After teaching about the voting process, have kids vote on something special. In my classroom, we voted for a classroom party.

My pack includes 20 different class party options, including options you can pair up with Laura Numeroff book characters!

You can start with 4 cards and have a “primary vote” to narrow it down to 2 choices. Some examples of class party options are:

pajama party
arts and crafts
extra recess
movie
board games
bubbles

Set the (Classroom) Stage

Use patriotic decor to create a voting atmosphere- flags, presidential posters, red, white, and blue paper decorations, balloons, etc.

I also set up a voting booth with a simple sign, as well as ballots and a ballot box.

After all votes are in, we counted the ballots and tallied the votes. When the winner was revealed, we started to plan our party! (*Family letter included in resource). It’s such a great way to end a unit on voting and Election Day!

Done-for-you Election Day Resource!

For a complete resource on teaching about voting in an unbiased way, with everything shown above and more, check out my Election Day Activities Bundle!

It includes: