Elections in Speech! {Freebies Included}

Honesty here: I’m not super happy about our upcoming election. It’s just hard, you know? And that’s all I’m going to say about it. Period.

HOWEVER….that’s not stopping us from having some fun with election during speech! My students are not only learning about our amazing privilege of voting, they are actually enjoying it! And guess what? I’m providing all of these to you….drumroll please….for free! Yep, that’s right. All you need are: file folders, a box (a tissue box will work), and 2 inch round label stickers.

Here’s what we’ve got going on:

First, we discussed what the election is using my Nonfiction Texts with English Language Arts Targets (Fall Edition). These passages are written in two levels, making them perfect to use with my entire caseload!

We discussed words such as “opinion, privacy, booth, ballot” and why privacy is important during our time at the polls.  Using the file folders, we easily made “voting booths” (which the kids loved) and cast our ballots.

My smaller friends filled out a “speech ballot.” I plan on giving some sort of reward or certificate to the teacher my speech friends choose the most. It was hard but I resisted putting myself on there. I didn’t want my presence to affect any votes lol!

For my older students and during social group, I gave the students two candidates who were running for the positions of “teacher” and “principal.”

We went on to discuss how sometimes the “nicer” candidate isn’t always the best and why. We also identified aspects of the candidate’s life that did not contribute to them being a good fit for the position such as “liking cats” or “wearing stylish clothes.” I was really impressed with the level of conversation my students were engaging in during this activity! One even said, “I’m all about pizza parties but I don’t want the school to become a zoo with kids wondering everywhere!”

After casting their ballot, each student received an “I Voted” sticker.

Even if the real election isn’t everything we want, I hope you’ll choose to have fun with your students while educating them about this wonderful privilege we have. You can download these printables for free HERE. Feel free to pin the image below to spread the word!