SGA Election Day

 

Today at school was election day for the SGA!  My scholars were eager to vote.  My teammate said to me yesterday he was going to make "I voted" stickers for the scholars, which reminded me....I use to do a whole voting experience with my first graders!  I went and printed out the voter registration cards that I made way back when.  

Note:  I did add a Zip Code section on their printed copies.

I had some photos of them.  They could choose between the photo I had of them or drawing their own picture.

They worked on those yesterday.

Today when they came in, they saw me dressed like this:

Yes, I am THAT crazy teacher. 
(In case you haven't figured it out yet!)

We do restorative justice peace circles on Friday.  I decided that I was going to incorporate the elections into our peace circle.  

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I then asked the scholars:

1.  What is it important to have a student government?

2.  What makes a great leader?

Then it was time to walk through the hall with all of the candidate's posters.  I created the sample ballots for them to use in the hallway.  I told the scholars how I received a sample ballot for our election.  I filled it out and brought it with me when I voted.  They were going to do the same thing.

Note:  The candidates were introduced in a whole school assembly the other day.  Going back to look at the posters was a great reminder for them.  

I am super lucky to have wonderful co-teacher and paraeducator support in my classroom.  They took my scholars through the hallway, pointed out each section, went over those candidates, and gave the scholars time to fill out their ballot.  

Meanwhile, back in the classroom, the other paraeducator and I set up the classroom to make it look like a voting location!

You can take a quick video tour here!

The line was out the door and down the hall! 

As the scholars came in, they handed me their vote registration card and told me their name.  They also told me their address OR birthday.  I looked at their picture on the back and put a star on their card.  I had tape on the floor just like a real polling place!

Mrs. Schnapp escorted the scholars to their booth and confirmed with them when they were done.  

The scholars went to Ms. Dove for an "I voted" sticker.  

Ms. Shadid did double duty - making the sure line of voters in the hallway wasn't out of control, and then collecting the sample ballots afterwards!  (Actually triple duty - all of these photos are hers!)

It was a great day!  The scholars had a wonderful time!

Thank you to Mr. Mason for the labels - and sparking the memory of what I did with my first graders!

Thank you to Mrs. Schnapp, Ms. Shadid, and Ms. Dove for going along with my crazy ideas and helping out!  I could not have done this without your support!

Thank you Ms. Shadid for taking pictures!

Thank you Ms. Henry and Ms. McNeal for making my evening! :-)

If I forgot to include you in my thank you section - my apologies!

Have a good night and a wonderful weekend!