In this blog post: Engage your students in learning all about voting this election day! These free election day activities include materials for a classroom election, picture book recommendations, decodable readers, and more.
No matter which side of the aisle you’re on, I think we’d all agree that learning about voting and elections is very important for our kindergarten and first grade students.
However, how do we take something very abstract and make it meaningful for our littlest learners?
This blog post includes free voting and election day activities that will help the democratic process click for your students.
You will also be able to grab a HUGE classroom election day freebie with all of these activities at the end of the blog post!
This blog post contains Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission when you shop using these links.
Read Voting and Election Picture Books
Read alouds are a great way to make abstract concepts like voting and elections a little more concrete for our kindergarten and first grade students.
There are so many meaningful children’s picture books about voting and elections out there. Here are some of my favorites:
Have a Classroom Election
What better way to help our students understand the voting process than to let them experience it themselves? A classroom election is a fun way to introduce students to voting in an election.
For example, after reading the book Duck for President, you can have students vote on who they think would make a better president {bonus: this hits those reading comprehension standards as well!}.
Other classroom election topics included in the free election day activities are:
- What classroom pet should we get?
- What is the best dessert?
- What is the best pet?
- What is the best snack food?
Let Students Register as Voters
Get your students excited for their classroom election by having them create their own voter ID cards! Students can illustrate themselves and add their name, age, school, and grade level to the cards.
Have Students Vote
You can use any box or basket that you have in your classroom as a ballot box. A template is included in the free election day activities download to decorate the front of the box.
To really get in the spirit, you can set up a desk or two as voting booths. Just use folders to create screens.
Students can check off who or what they think should win. Then, they can add their vote to the ballet box.
After students finish voting, of course they will need an I Voted sticker! These sticker templates can be printed and used as is or printed on sticker paper to create your own I Voted stickers.
Graph the Results
Creating a class graph with the election results is an easy way to integrate math with your social studies activities. You can count the votes together and add sticky notes or tallies to show the results.
Students can show the data on their own graphs too.
Read election day decodable readers
These Voting decodable readers are a great way to integrate phonics and literacy. The free election day activities download includes both an alphabet and CVC words version of the decodable reader.
Students can read the books and then color and take home to show their families everything they learned.
free election day activities
Ready to celebrate election day with your students? Grab your free election day activities download below:
Do you love free stuff?
Classroom Election Freebies
Engage your students in learning all about elections and voting with these free classroom election resources.
Tip: School districts often block emails with outside downloads. A personal email address will work best.
Happy election day!
Natalie Lynn
