HappyGrace Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 I'd like to do some sort of "unit study" type thing surrounding the presidential election with dc12 (and dc9)-not sure how formal or informal we'll get. Just starting to think about ideas, resources, etc. Anyone have any ideas yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted May 29, 2012 Share Posted May 29, 2012 I hadn't really thought about it, but that's a good idea! So I'm putting together some possible resources... Books: Why Elections Are Important Presidential Elections & Other Cool Facts See How They Run Candidates, Campaigns, And Elections Other: Blog entry on possible approaches Presidential Election Notebooking Pages Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Jo Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 I was skimming through Our Island Story, and I think I may read a few of those and compare them to our elections. (Some are very sad and really show the turmoil.) Maybe review the Greek democracy and the Roman republic as well, if I can find some good stories. There's also a public domain book the Elementary Catechism on the Constitution, but mine might be too young. (I haven't read it completely to be sure.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna T. Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 We have already started because we are very passionate supporters of one of the Presidential candidates. So, our children are already learning about him, his views, and the process. We have watched all of the debates and have been keeping up with the activities of our candidate. We listen to his speeches. We are currently reading Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? because it explains some things about our monetary system that we want them to know as we think monetary policy is very relevent to this year's election. We are reading a book written by the candidate that we support. We are also going to read a book written by a candidate that we do not support... just to be fair and all. :) We will be doing a short lapbook on the Electoral College that I got for free awhile back when Currclick was giving things away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livetoread Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 I used last election to work on learning the states. Every couple of days we'd color the states either red, blue, or purple depending on how the polls were predicting. We'd also write the number of electoral votes each candidate was likely to get depending on the current polls. This ended up leading to some interesting learning. A few months later I pulled out a map of the US to review states. I pointed to one and asked my son what it was. He thought for awhile and finally said, "I can't remember but it has 55 electoral votes and goes democrat." Yes son, that would be California! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trish Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 Notgrass has a special unit on elections. I bought it last fall for use this coming year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jelbe5 Posted May 30, 2012 Share Posted May 30, 2012 Amanda Bennett has nice unit studies. http://www.unitstudy.com/UnitStudyAdventuresIndividualStudies.html There are units on American Government and Elections and coming soon one on Inaugurations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted May 30, 2012 Author Share Posted May 30, 2012 Great ideas, thanks-I'm going to check these all out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I used last election to work on learning the states. Every couple of days we'd color the states either red, blue, or purple depending on how the polls were predicting. We'd also write the number of electoral votes each candidate was likely to get depending on the current polls. This ended up leading to some interesting learning. A few months later I pulled out a map of the US to review states. I pointed to one and asked my son what it was. He thought for awhile and finally said, "I can't remember but it has 55 electoral votes and goes democrat." Yes son, that would be California! I am very interested in the idea of tying state study and the election together. The 50 states books can seem so theoretical and just a meaningless and endless list, to those of us who live on the coast and have never been inland. studying them as they come up in the election seems unifying and pertinent, and...I'm not sure what, but something. Some of the other ideas I have seen to enrich state study will just make it an endless project, but this...this won't take any longer, and will also be teaching the election at the same time. Thanks for the idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted May 31, 2012 Author Share Posted May 31, 2012 I used last election to work on learning the states. Every couple of days we'd color the states either red, blue, or purple depending on how the polls were predicting. We'd also write the number of electoral votes each candidate was likely to get depending on the current polls. This ended up leading to some interesting learning. A few months later I pulled out a map of the US to review states. I pointed to one and asked my son what it was. He thought for awhile and finally said, "I can't remember but it has 55 electoral votes and goes democrat." Yes son, that would be California! I am definitely doing this! It was one of the ideas on my short list before posting this thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livetoread Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Glad the idea was helpful. The best part about it was I got to channel my poll checking obsession into something productive. It gave me a good excuse anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Glad the idea was helpful. The best part about it was I got to channel my poll checking obsession into something productive. It gave me a good excuse anyway. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnyDays Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Notgrass has a special unit on elections. I bought it last fall for use this coming year. Do you have a link for this? I'm not seeing it on the Notgrass site. Maybe it's not out there right now if they're updating it, but I just wanted to see if I'm overlooking it!! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomandlorih Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I'm eyeing the lapbooks over at Knowledge Box Central.. especially since they are only $5 now=D http://www.knowledgeboxcentral.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Country Girl Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Do you have a link for this? I'm not seeing it on the Notgrass site. Maybe it's not out there right now if they're updating it, but I just wanted to see if I'm overlooking it!! :) I contacted Notgrass about this a couple of weeks ago and here is the response I got: Regarding Elections in America, we are no longer printing that curriculum because we are incorporating the material into a full-year Civics curriculum due to go on sale late this summer. This new curriculum will cover elections; the three branches of government; state, local, and Federal government; rights and responsibilities of the citizen; the way citizens interact with government; and patriotic holidays. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnyDays Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Thanks, Country Girl. Yes, that does help... even if it's not the answer I wanted, LOL!! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 You may want to look at Icivics http://www.icivics.org/. They have a "Run for the White House" game, where the child can run their own presidential campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karis Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 You may want to look at Icivics http://www.icivics.org/. They have a "Run for the White House" game, where the child can run their own presidential campaign. WOW!! thanks for sharing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnyDays Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Thanks, the icivics site looks fun too!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Lava Mama Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 at http://www.homeschoolshare.com Looks pretty good. Hot Lava Mama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 Oh, I love the free lapbook, thanks! It is prbly what I will have to do since our finances have taken an unexpected downturn. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Since I mentioned icivics.org, I thought I'd share my (currently ;)) planned sequence for using the lesson plans on the site. I haven't seen anything else that gives a suggested sequence, so maybe it will help someone else. I'm still open to changing the order is anyone has a suggestion for something that might work better.:) At this point, I'm planning to do a full introduction to civics and government rather than just a unit on elections, so this may be overkill for what some need. We are getting ready to go into the American Revolution, so some of this will do double duty for us. The units can be found under the "lesson plans" section of the website. Our first lesson today seemed to go well.:001_smile: 1. Foundations of Government unit 2 Constitution unit 3. The Three Branches unit (and go on to the executive/legislative/judicial more in-depth units) 4. State and Local Government unit 5. Budget unit 6. Politics and Public Policy unit (including the media unit here between the electoral process and candidate evaluation) 7. Citizenship unit 8. International Affairs unit Each of these curriculum units has several individual lesson plans and games that require about one standard class period per topic (some take more). We'll be skipping the ones that involve role play or skits (I have an only, so those don't work as well here) and the webquests (they seem to be aimed at younger children). I'm going to save the civil rights unit for later in our history studies, and we'll see whether or not the persuasive writing lessons will work for us as we get toward the end. Writing is still something we're working on and she'll be taking an outside class in it this fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 You may want to look at Icivics http://www.icivics.org/. They have a "Run for the White House" game, where the child can run their own presidential campaign. This looks like fun. Cauliflower, my middle son, was day dreaming about creating something like this. Of course, he was also trying to figure out what the tipping point for negative advertising and dirty tricks would be. When is it tough campaigning and when is it illegal or bringing down negative reactions from voters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 The State Department publishes guides to US elections and government as part of their information activities through embassies. This is the sort of document that would be given out to groups interested in how US government works. I found the election book I got years ago to be very well done, with lots of historical background. Here is the current election guide (see the .pdf in the sidebar). If you click on the Publications link at the top, you can see some of the other pubs available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 at www.homeschoolshare.com Looks pretty good. Hot Lava Mama Thank you! Free is really good right now. You may want to look at Icivics http://www.icivics.org/. They have a "Run for the White House" game, where the child can run their own presidential campaign. Looks like fun! Thanks for sharing! I think between the lapbook, the icivics game, and library books, we'll be building a decent understanding of the electoral process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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