Second-grade students at the George L. Cooke Elementary School learned important lessons about the voting process during an election day activity in Ms. Kilcoin’s class.
In Ms. Kilcoin’s room, there’s a large calendar at the front of the classroom, and on the square for Nov. 8, there is a flag with the words “election day.” As soon as the calendar changed from October to November, the questions began.
“Every day, students had tons of questions about election day,” Ms. Kilcoin said. “After a few days of questions, I knew we had to do some sort of hands-on election activity.”
Ms. Kilcoin created a polling station in her classroom, complete with ballots, privacy shields, ballot boxes, and “I voted” stickers. Three propositions were on the ballot: Oreo cookies or chocolate chip?; salty or sweet snacks?; and wavy Lays or thin Lays? After watching a video on the voting process, each student came up one at a time to privately fill out a ballot with their preferences before adding it to the ballot box and receiving their sticker.
Once the results are calculated, the students will enjoy the “winners” as a special snack later this week.
