Election Day

Yesterday was Election Day and also a workday for me.  I had fun creating a voting experience for my students that was as real as I could create with a zero budget, and after work our family celebrated the opportunity to vote by going to the polls together, eating out and watching some TV!

In my class election, students came to a desk where the election worker found their name on the list (a class list with addresses, like what they have at the polling place) and crossed it out with a ruler and red pen.  The voter then signed their name and got a ballot to vote for President. 

The voters then took their ballots to the booths I made from testing privacy boards.  The ballots were not like the ones we mark in a real election, but very similar to what we see in our sample ballots.  The kids marked the bubble next to their choice.  They were really cute and took the job of voting quite seriously.

After they were finished, they took their ballots to the ballot box person and got an "I voted" sticker I made with address labels and sharpie markers.

In case you're curious, the results were 17 votes for Obama and 12 votes for Romney (there were a number of kids out sick, if you're wondering how that only adds up to 29).  We ended the day with (another) talk about being kind to others who might disagree with us, how we need to respect our leaders whether they are our choice or not, etc. 

 In the evening after work, our family went to the polls and voted.  Our kids have gone with us to vote for every election since they were older than infants.  It is interesting to see how much more they understand each time.

Since Eric and I were dating, it has been our tradition to go out to dinner on election night (in presidential election years) and eat at a restaurant that has TVs where we can watch the states turn red and blue as the results come in.  The first few times we ate at Macaroni Grill, but the one near us closed so we had to find a new place this year.  We ended up at T. Phillips in Old Town because they have a bunch of big screen TVs. We were able to dine on burgers and pulled pork while following the results on CNN.  It was pretty fun!

This year I added a new activity for Ashlynn.  She has a decent understanding of the states, so as states were declared "red" or "blue", she colored them in on her map too.  I think coloring made it hard for her to want to go to bed because there were still a number of states that were not called at bedtime, but I also think it made the results a little more interesting and inspired good discussions about population and the electoral college (which is mostly beyond her understanding but it doesn't hurt to talk about the basics).

I know that many "teachable moments" pass us by, but I was glad that I was able to make the most of Election Day with both my students and my family.