How to vote, the voting process, election day, inauguration day, and so much more! My students have LOVED learning all about this year’s Presidential Inauguration with all of these fun activities!

You can find the resource here!
Donald Trump Craftivity and Writing Project

Students loved the White House coloring page.I asked them to color the windows and cut it out. Most of my students decided to paste it on a large sheet of dark blue paper.

Several drew snowflakes or created trees with construction paper. The “road” was completely their idea and I loved it.

I was especially proud of my little boy who created a car from construction paper. Believe me, he was very proud too!

We reviewed our word wall cards and I was pleased that this week students had a much more in depth understanding about the president and what will happen on Inauguration Day.

I also had students complete the coloring sheets provided as morning work this week. I love that these are differentiated to meet individual learning needs. My high students loved the challenge and my lower students were able to build some confidence. The best part was that I didn’t have any early finishers. Crickets in my room and I have a very talkative class!

I also let the students know that we would be holding a mock election to see who should be the school president. I told them that Mr. Hice, our gym teacher and Mr. Mills, our music teacher were the two candidates. The kids were thrilled at just the thought of holding an election. I gave each student a sheet to write the names and draw a picture of the candidates. (I included more advanced ways to compare the two candidates in the resource, but for kindergarten I stuck with a simple sheet. If you teach an older grade you may want to use the Venn diagram page or the page where students list favorable traits on the emojis.)

(Many of my students drew our gym teacher with a basketball and our music teacher with a guitar.)

I told the students that they needed to do some thinking about who they would cast a vote for. I reminded them that they shouldn’t cast a vote just because they like one subject over the other.

Mr. Mills stopped by to tell us that he was older and therefore wiser then Mr. Hice. We plan to talk to Mr. Hice tomorrow to hear why we should vote for him. 🙂

In the meantime, my AMAZING assistant Mel created the most adorable “I Voted Today” stickers for the students to wear after they place their ballot. I included ballots in the resource listed, but I have to admit that I like the ones that Mel surprised us with even better so we will be using those. She also came up with this adorable ballot box! Now, how bad do you want a Mel in your room??? 🙂 At our school we have an assistant for an hour a day and I am so grateful for that!

I have left the ballot box, stickers, and ballots sitting out just to build excitement and it has really worked. My students have been begging me to cast their votes. We will be voting tomorrow and they can’t wait.

Think about how you could use this resource in your classroom. In the past I brought in pictures of my dogs and asked students to decide who should be our Dog President. I told students all about each dog’s good and bad character traits. They had so much fun. I wouldn’t want to let two students run in my room because I could envision a lot of jealousy and hurt feelings.

 

How could you use this in your room?

Did you miss how we began this lesson? Head Here!

Inauguration Day for Young Children

 

To see what we did next, head here!

Mock Election with Young Students by Pencils to Pigtails

          Have you ever taught your students about the presidential election? My kids had the best time learning about inauguration day and how to vote while working on essential writing skills.

When Donald Trump was elected, we really loved learning about Inauguration Day!

I know that there are many differing opinions about our most recent Presidential election. However, I think it is really important to teach our children that they have a voice. I developed a unit on Donald Trump to use with my students. You can find it here:

Donald Trump Craftivity and Writing Project

I found an old bulletin board set that I used when I taught fourth grade so I started by showing my students some pictures from the bulletin board set along with the word wall cards from my Trump unit. I also found a newspaper article in this month’s Kidsville to share with them.

I LOVED hearing my students discuss the President. I began by asking them who the current President is. None of them knew! Several said that Donald Trump was the President. I explained that Inauguration Day will take place on January 20th, 2017. We discussed a typical Inauguration Day which usually consists of the incoming President attending a worship service, a ride with the outgoing President to the ceremony, taking an oath of office, a parade, luncheon, and a ball. The students were so intrigued by the idea of a ball! (More on that later!)

I really enjoyed hearing what my students had to say when asked what the President does. One said that he can tell the robbers not to go in people’s houses. Another said he can decide who goes to jail. One little boy said that he can call the fire department if there is a fire and another child said he can decide when it is time for everyone to eat dinner. 🙂 I gave them a very basic overview of various responsibilities that our President has.

I then gave the kids some “think time” to figure out what they would tell the President if they had the chance to give him some advice. They came up with the cutest answers and I wrote them on the board. Some of the sentences were “Practice dancing.” (for the inaugural ball, of course!) They also said he should be a good boss, watch baseball to relax, get a pet, take care of everybody, go to bed early, and protect the world. I loved that last one! I am so impressed with them!

Students were asked to pick 3 of the sentences and copy them. Many times I ask students to come up with a sentence phonetically, but for this assignment I wanted them to copy 3 from the sentences we generated together. I was pleased that they seemed to have a strong understanding that a sentence consists of a complete thought and that they were able to practice essential components of a sentence such as beginning with a capital letter and using end marks. (I am noticing that I need to work on handwriting more though!) 🙂

After they finished we looked at several pictures of Donald Trump. I showed the students my sample craft and told them that I just couldn’t get his hair right. They had so much fun attempting to create his hairstyle. As you can see, we could not figure out exactly what color his hair should be! I passed out the pieces one item at a time, but I’ve never been one to correct students if they don’t make their craft look just like mine. I love how they each have their own individual style!

The kids are so proud of their Donald Trumps! I am too.

Head here to see what we did next!

Pencils to Pigtails Inauguration Day – Week 2

     This adorable freebie created to pair with The Missing Mitten Mystery written by Steven Kellogg will keep primary students engaged while practicing essential writing skills! Young children love working on writing while trying to solve the mystery!

Update! Guess what? The post below was written BEFORE I created this FREEBIE that includes mittens and writing templates that you can find by clicking on the photo above to download in my TPT store! Please read through my older blog post to see how I introduce the mystery to my students!

 

The kids and I were excited to jump back in the swing of things after our Christmas break. I always like to display any books about snow in the month of January. We live in Tennessee and so an inch or two of snow can get us very excited. 🙂

This morning I read the students “The Missing Mitten Mystery”. This book was written and illustrated by Steven Kellogg and is perfect for incorporating into your Writer’s Workshop time.

I always begin the story by discussing the term “mystery” with students. I gave them a brief time to talk with their shoulder partners and make predictions about the story.

You will also want to point out that Steven Kellogg is both the author and illustrator. I’ve always thought his illustrations are especially beautiful and detailed.

Read the story but make sure you stop after Miss Seltzer calls Annie to come inside.

I tell students that I want them to write about what they think happened to Annie’s mitten. Do they think Annie was on to something when she suggested a bird took the mitten? Do they have another idea?

I gave each student a small red mitten I had pre-cut out of construction paper. (This REALLY adds to the excitement!) I guided them through creating a story starter. Ours was “I think Annie’s mitten is _________.”

For kindergarten students I was really pleased with what they came up with!

Most of my students predicted that the mitten was either on the snowman’s hand or that the eagle had taken it. I had a few think the mouse had it or that she had left it outside while playing.

It is always fun to come back together and let the kids share their work. I then read the rest of the book where they discover that the mitten was left inside the snowman creating the perfect heart shape.

I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine always do!