Colette Eileen Graybeal
Ardmore Elementary School
Bellevue, Washington
89080

AUDIENCE: Grades 2 - 4

MATERIALS:

6" x 4" assorted colors of construction paper
6 coat hangers
colored yarn
hole punchers

PROCEDURE:

DAY ONE

With the entire class, brainstorm qualities that they would look for in a president. List all ideas on the chalkboard. These are some ideas that my class came up with when encouraged to think about their needs and the world's needs:

sense of humor, happy, strong, energetic, smart, kind, good looking, likes people, large military, housing for homeless, and fair

DAY TWO

Gather the class together and vote for the top eight qualities of a president.

Teacher prepared materials-On the 6" x 4" construction paper, write down one quality on each piece of paper. You will need enough sets for each group of four in your class.

DAY THREE

Split class into groups of four. Each group gets a set of eight qualities. They are to rank these qualities in order of importance. The entire group must agree on each decision. Encourage the pupils to debate and compromise their decisions. After they have ranked their qualities, they can punch and tie together their quality cards then hang them from a hanger. Display in classroom. See attached for example.

DAY FOUR

Gather class together and compare each group's outcomes.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

Were there common traits?

What seemed to be the most important qualities?

What was the least important quality? Why?

EXTENSION: I then had my class split into groups of four once again. They selected their own qualities and things that they found important. The group, as before, listed and ranked their ideas. Some examples are attached.

The group then presented their list to the class. After the presentations, each person selected the group they could identify with. We then became separate political parties. Some parties were quite large while others ceased to exist or became very small. Each group selected a presidential candidate and created speeches and campaign posters based upon its political parties beliefs.

As the campaigns wore on, some of the children had a change of heart and switched parties. Eventually two parties existed. We discussed each aspect of change and why it occurred. The election came after a debate and question and answer time. Some children chose to write articles about the candidates in the classroom newspaper. We then reviewed the political parties' beliefs and the qualities of a good leader before we held the election.