Democracy In Action, Four Year Old Style
It was getting to be Presidential Election time of year and the 4 year olds were asking questions about elections. We tried to explain during circle time about what voting meant. We talked about practicing voting ourselves and the children came up with a list of things we could vote on in our group. Their ideas were things like changing snack time or voting out rest time. We looked at all options, discussed what would or wouldn't work (voting out a rest time was very popular but then we had to come up with something that would work in its stead, like quiet book and puzzle time).
Luckily, the facility where the preschool was located actually was a polling place so we knew on the day there would be elections downstairs. On that day we went to observe what the grown-ups did. Then we went back to the classroom and made ballots with red and black stamps, red was rest, black was quiet activity. The children built a voting booth out of blocks and a chair so they could all have turns voting. Then they had the rest of the morning to vote.
We counted the ballots, everyone got a”voted" sticker, thanks to the considerate crew downstairs, and followed through with what they had decided (no rest but a quiet time). I don't know who was more excited about voting that day, the kids or the adults. What a wonderful example of emergent and meaningful curriculum.
This article is part of our Newsletter 2024 Issue 2. See all articles.
