Why Is Voting Important?
Ice Cream Day: An Activity for Elementary School Teachers
Introduction
Everyone in your class is a person who lives in the town of Gelato. The town is planning a party to celebrate your town holiday, Ice Cream Day. The mayor goes to order ice cream for the party. But he/she finds that there are 4 different kinds and the ice cream comes in huge vats, so the town can only buy one kind for the party. The four choices are: Gross Green Goop, VaVaVoom Vanilla, Super Strawberry Swirl, and Chocolate Chunks and Chips. The class will hold mock elections to decide what kind of ice cream Gelato will serve. You can do all the scenarios on one day, or do a different scenario each day for a week.
Scenarios
Choose two or more scenarios, depending on the level of the class. Put the results of each election on the chalkboard or large paper that can be posted in the classroom. Each day, ask students how they felt about the results and the election process.
Scenario 1
Explain that the mayor might choose the ice cream alone. If so, only one person is voting. Your "election results" would look like this:
Number of Votes
Ice Cream Choice
1
Gross Green Goop
0
VaVaVoom Vanilla
0
Super Strawberry Swirl
0
Chocolate Chunks and Chips
(Rest of class)
No Response
Scenario 2
Now tell the mayor to invite the people on his/her staff to vote too. Your "election results" would look like this:
Number of Votes
Ice Cream Choice
1
Gross Green Goop
2
VaVaVoom Vanilla
0
Super Strawberry Swirl
4
Chocolate Chunks and Chips
(Rest of class)
No Response
Scenario 3
But you don't like those results, so you open the polls for city dwellers to vote. But only a few more people vote. (Remember to tell ½ the remaining students not to vote.) The results might come out like this:
Number of Votes
Ice Cream Choice
3
Gross Green Goop
4
VaVaVoom Vanilla
5
Super Strawberry Swirl
7
Chocolate Chunks and Chips
(Rest of class)
No Response
Explain a few of the reasons why people don't vote in the context of Gelato's election: People might not know about the election, or they don't care what kind of ice cream the town has at the party, or they think the mayor will just order his/her favorite anyway.
Scenario 4
The mayor is sure that more people will vote for his/her ice cream if they know about the election. In this election, let students advertise and encourage others to vote for their favorite. Students can divide up into teams along the ice cream lines and create fliers or talk to their friends. "Green Goop is GOOD!" "Vote VaVaVoom Vanilla!"
In this election, you should secretly add more votes for one kind of ice cream, preferably the lowest-rated one. If you the teacher is the mayor, you may want to make Gross Green Goop the winner.
Show the results and encourage students to discuss what's wrong with them. Explain that you have more votes than people in the election. How could this happen? Explain to your class that no one in the class stuffed the ballot, but you added extra votes to demonstrate this scenario for them.
Scenario 5
In the final vote, have the class register before they can vote. Everyone can only vote once. Tell the "non-voting" students that they can vote this time.
Now compare your election results for each scenario.
Extend learning about this activity 