Every Vote Counts

1. Kids' opinions count! Students find out the choices of their classmates in a weekly opinion poll. Feature results on a bulletin board that is designed, built, and managed by students. Some suggested topics to survey: tastiest school lunch item, school uniforms, favorite way to exercise. Each week, students choose one question and the group they will ask. Here are a few suggestions to get the survey teams started.
2. Set up the bulletin board. With Crayola® Scissors, cut craft paper to cover a bulletin board. Create four signs: your display title, "What we asked," "Who we asked," and "Results" with Crayola Gel Markers. Attach signs at the top of the bulletin board with a Crayola Glue Stick.
3. Leave the bottom left side of the bulletin board blank to list poll choices. Attach long pieces of hook and loop tape the rest of the way across. Attach small pieces of tape to several clean recycled plastic containers so they can be used as symbols to represent votes for each choice.
4. Take a poll. Gather information for the first poll in a notebook. Write the poll question and choices with Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils. Visit classrooms, lunch tables, or groups of children at recess to ask the questions. Tally each vote.
5. Show results. Make signs with the poll question and the name of the group(s) polled. Attach to the top of the board.
6. Add tally marks and construct a graph to show the data. Write labels on paper strips and attach to the left of each tape strip. Decide how many votes each snack cup represents. Attach snack cups on the tape strip. Analyze the poll findings. Were you surprised by anything? Who might find the data especially useful?

Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing one's own clearly.

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

MATH: Represent and interpret data.

SS: Identify examples of rights and responsibilities of citizens.

SS: Identify and practice selected forms of civic discussion and participation consistent with the ideals of citizens in a democratic republic.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

Possible classroom resources include: Vote! By Eileen Christelow; I Could Do That!: Esther Morris Gets Women the Vote (Melanie Kroupa Books) by Linda Arms White; Presidents (Eyewitness Books) by James David Barber

Encourage students to find, gather, and create a collage of charts, tables, and graphs found in magazines and newspapers. Students compare various ways to visually represent numerical information.