Holmdel's Youngest Students Participate in Our Democracy

Holmdel (November 7, 2016) - Election Day came early for elementary school students at Village School in Holmdel. With schools closed for the week of the election itself, students spent the days leading up to the election engaged in a variety of learning activities focused on the election. Not only did students learn abut the upcoming election and the voting process, but in Randi Kerner’s 1st grade classroom students experienced the electoral process first hand with their own in-class campaign and election based on a reading of two books on the same subject but with clearly different points of view, The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. The first, the classic story while the other is the story as told by the Wolf. Each student then had to decide on one candidate to support, either the Pig or the Wolf.

Over the course of 2 weeks, students campaigned by making shirts, cupcakes, cookies, posters, and even decorated socks for their candidate. They wrote and performed songs, created commercials, used computer technology to create campaign signs, wrote letters to the candidates, and engaged in learning how “in a representative democracy, individuals elect representatives to act on the behalf of the people” (New Jersey Student Learning Standards).

Students in this 1st grade class also registered to vote, learned about voting requirements in the United States, and even crafted their own list of requirements to be able to vote in the class election. Once the campaigning was over, students had the opportunity to go into a “Voting Booth” (constructed by the class) to fill out their very own ballots.

Meanwhile, down the hall in Harry Dangler’s 2nd grade class students facilitated a school-wide mock election based on this year’s candidates for President. They learned about the different branches of the government and the candidates themselves. The students invited the staff and students of Village School to vote for the candidate they thought should be President. Students and staff were able to vote by ballot or online.

Once all the votes were in Mr. Dangler’s class counted the votes and posted the results.