Last week, the Collective (4th-8th grade) learned about the US Government and how elections work. The children learned about the popular vote and the electoral college.
On Wednesday, they were handed slips of paper assigning them to a particular “state” as they entered the classroom. We listed the states (outside, gathering room, work block room, and office) on the board with their respective populations. Then we discussed how many electors each state would have based on population size. Even though the office was a population of one, it would get two electoral votes because that is the minimum requirement for each state.
Thursday was election day and the children arrived to a decorated classroom complete with private voting booths and a ballot box. The children voted on whether to grill s’mores or quesadillas on the following school day.
This was high stakes! Four at a time, the children went to cast their votes, claim their “I voted” sticker, pose in the photo booth, and wait eagerly for the results.
We tallied the popular votes together on the board and it was a tie! Next, the electoral college met to count popular votes for their state. We discussed the responsibility of knowing how others voted and honoring the popular vote even if your personal vote was different. The electors turned their ballots in and we returned to the gathering room to tally the final results.
One by one we added tally marks to the board and finally discovered the winning result. Quesadillas won by two electoral votes!
The Collective children will deeply empathize with their adults as they anticipate election results.
