Lesson 11: Election (Grades 4-5)

1. The night before the election, invite students to interview their parents or other adults about Election Day and their voting choices.
   1. Who did you vote for?
   2. Why did you vote for that candidate?
2. On the day after the election, have students share their responses with the class. Discuss similarities/differences among voting results.
3. When the national count is complete, invite students to compare your class results from Lesson 10 with the rest of the community and country.
4. Have a class discussion. Have students consider the reasons why different places might have different results (consider: geographic location, urban vs. rural, ethnic/religious makeup of a region, industrial development; location near a university).
5. Using newspapers or the internet, find the electoral results for the election.
6. Provide students with a blank U.S. political map. Assign students several states each. Students should find out which candidate won the electoral vote in their assigned states and color their maps red/blue respectively.
7. Students should keep a tally of electoral votes for each candidate.
8. Students should report the results in their states to the rest of the class, who fill in their individual maps accordingly.
9. With a partner, have students analyze what they see in the results (potential observations: geographic distribution by party, large state vs. small state results).
10. Using local newspapers or the internet, have students research any problems that developed either on Election Day or following the election. (potential ideas: voting machines not working, shortage of ballots, long lines at polling places, contested results). Invite students to list any problems they find and how the issues were resolved.
11. Invite students to look at how the election was covered by different media sources and discuss any differences they observe.

US Map Graphic Organizer