Printables for Having a Mock Election

Election Day is more fraught than usual this year for all sorts of reasons, but I for one love voting, and I know I’m not the only one.

And it’s fun for kids to get to vote and make their voices heard, whether they’re having a mock presidential election or naming the class (or home) pet.

Barley and Birch has a set of printables for hosting an election, including ballots, sticker pages, bunting flags and more. They’re on a pay what you want model so you can get them for free or send a little coin her way as a thank you for making such cute stuff.

Head to her post for all the details and ideas on how to use these materials in a classroom or at home.

(And as a side note if you’re in the United States and are able to, please vote if you haven’t already!)

[Photo: Barley and Birch.]

With little kids especially, linking learning to physical activity really does help them learn. Movement can help kids focus, and it just keeps them from sitting still all day, which isn’t good for anyone.

The good news is lots of different learning activities can be adopted to get kids moving while they learn, so let’s look at some math and number activities that use gross motor skills.

Probably the most obvious thing would be hopscotch, which helps kids count while they hop. You can also mix up the numbers, do skip counting with the numbers, give kids a simple math problem and have them hop to the correct answer, and on and on.

This number hop game from Gift of Curiosity is a more chaotic version, with number flash cards on the floor that kids can hop, skip or jump to as you call them out (this one is more for individual number identification than counting). It’s a great indoor option if it’s too hot, cold or rainy out to do traditional hopscotch, too.

This painter’s tape number line idea from Days with Grey doesn’t involve quite as much movement, but kids can move around while they place things on the number line and work on learning about one to one correspondence. In the blog post they use shoes, but you can count anything you’ve got handy. (Be warned when I visited this website had an ad that continually took up the whole page, but you can get the idea pretty quickly.)

One of the important tasks of learning numbers is learning a parent’s phone number just in case it’s ever needed, or how to dial 911 in case on an emergency. Teaching Mama has a great way to practice telephone numbers and get some movement in with a giant telephone keypad made out of paper plates. You can also use this for counting practice, but it’s a great idea for learning phone numbers, too.

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