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Yesterday we had our first meeting for our Government club. We’re doing a variety of things over September and October to follow the elections. The meeting yesterday focused on a mock campaign and election. It was a lot of fun. You might consider getting a few friends together and giving it a try. It really helped the kids “see” the vocabulary words we’ve been studying and think through the process and issues in a tangible way.
We first divided up into a red and blue team with 19 kids ranging in age from 6-16. Each of these teams then were given the task of choosing a candidate. We chose to go with a Biblical Character rather than take a current political candidate. This also allowed the kids to take in consideration who would be the best person to choose for their party.
They needed to consider what they know about the characters’ skills, abilities and experiences in order to choose the best candidate. For instance David might seem a good choice. He was after all a successful King and was a military man, however he had some personal issues (adultery, rebellious son, murderer etc…) that could prove a liability to the campaign.
Once their candidate was chosen they then needed to pick a slogan. On this sheet for the younger kids (age 6-12) and this one for the older kids (13+) I listed a few as examples of slogans as well as outlined their assignments.
After they chose their slogans we split off the older and younger kids (see approximate ages above.) The younger group then worked on ad’s for their candidate and the older group worked on defining what would be their candidate’s issues. See the linked sheets above for more information on that part.
The older group will be researching threir issues in the next two weeks and then we’ll have a mock debate. The linked sheet is to get them started on their research. There is a National debate we’ll be watching next Friday to get idea’s for the format we’ll use for the actual debate.
Our final event for this part of our government club will be a mock election at our homeschool groups’ fall kick off. That’s where the younger group will actually hand out their flyers and carry their posters and the older group will give brief speeches before all members (parents and kids alike) are given an opportunity to vote.
So far it’s been a lot of fun and I think the kids are learning a lot in the process!
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