With the election just around the corner I've been pondering about getting in some good government lessons about the three branches of government and the election process. I'm teaming up with our librarian to organize a school-wide mock election that my fifth graders will lead, but I really want my students to have a good understanding of our government. I've realized that my kiddos really have no clue that there is even an election going on and are lacking in the area of social studies (even basic geography skills)
My question to you is, how do you go about teaching elementary students about our federal government? What lessons, activities, and resources do you use to help your students become more aware of the election process/basic functions of our three branches of government?
Since this is my first time to teaching during an election year I'm really wanting to hear what others have done to bring this current event to life in their classrooms! :) Have a great Sunday!
My 5th grade team switches for language, social studies and science. I teach language. The social studies teacher is going to come up with lessons/ activities for us to do to teach elections and the process. As I was doing my plans for next week I realized next week is 9/11. This is my 1st year teaching 5th. I came from K. Do other 5th grade teachers touch upon it?
ReplyDeleteWe only have two 5th grade teachers.
DeleteI'm in charge of reading and science while my teammate is in charge of reading and math. (We teach reading to our homerooms) We try to incorporate as much social studies as we can during our reading blocks (This can be hard at times since the ELAR curriculum is so heavy)
Yes and with 9/11 next week I was also wanting to touch on that (this is the first year that the kids weren't born when 9?11 happened) I will touch on it a bit, but not much since I have other TEKS to touch.
I have never done a specific unit on elections, but we cover the 3 branches as a part of our curriculum. Our SS curriculum starts with Native Americans and goes all the way to present day events. I recommend you start by teaching about the colonies, King George's rule, and events that led up to the Revolutionary War. Then the Declaration of Independence and then forming our government which then leads perfectly into the election. Showing the progression allows students to better understand why our form of government was necessary. During these lessons we always have our students pick sides between patriots and loyalists and the teachers are the "queens." We treat them unfairly and they really connect to how the colonists and our founding fathers felt and why they wanted independence. They are then much more interested in learning about the three branches of government because the get an understanding that our current government is much more fair.
ReplyDeleteYou have about 2 months before the election so that's a good amount of time to teach the background leading up to our government and voting.
I hope this helps.
Katrina
Teacherofscholars.blogspot.com
Thanks! Social Studies is the only area that my district doesn't provide a pacing guide in, but yes it seems natural to go with the timeline you mentioned. I was just hoping that my while we start the events leading to the school mock election that the kids had more background knowledge of our government operations.
DeleteI love the patriots vs. loyalists activity! I forgot about that one...we did that in one of my teaching classes in college.
Thanks for all the feedback Katrina!!!