the election – Early Math Counts https://earlymathcounts.org Laying the foundation for a lifetime of achievement Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:51:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 183791774 The Electoral College https://earlymathcounts.org/the-electoral-college/ https://earlymathcounts.org/the-electoral-college/#respond Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:00:14 +0000 http://www.mathathome.org/blog1/?p=890 I don’t know about you, but understanding the Electoral College is really difficult.  Today, some of your children might be talking about yesterday’s election.  They might want to talk about it.  They might want to explore it a little.

If you pull out the newspaper, you can show the children the map of the United States and explain how each of the states has a say in who becomes the President.  You might show them that more states were RED but more people in fewer states were BLUE.  When you simply look at the map, it looks overwhelmingly RED, but the more populous cities are in the BLUE states.

For some of the older children you can discuss the idea of the majority again.  Even though the majority of the states were RED, the majority of the people were BLUE.

Confusing, I know.

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The Election https://earlymathcounts.org/the-election/ https://earlymathcounts.org/the-election/#respond Mon, 05 Nov 2012 20:00:18 +0000 http://www.mathathome.org/blog1/?p=855 Are you going to have a mini-vote in your center or classroom tomorrow?  Young children don’t need to take on the adult worries of the actual election, but having a small election for something small and meaningful to them is a great way to introduce the democratic process, teach them about the “majority,” and offer them the opportunity to count votes.

You might need to get creative with this idea, because it will be most meaningful if it actually happens tomorrow, when the grown-ups in the children’s’ lives are also voting.  Think of something in your classroom that needs to be decided on and create ballots for the choices.  Create a voting booth where children can take their turns filling out their ballots and putting them into the ballot box ( a simple shoe box with a slot in the top will do just fine).

Make it simple:  They can vote between a walk around the block or a walking trip to a local playground.  They can vote about a name for something in the classroom – a class pet, or a nickname for the teacher.  They can vote about their favorite flavor of ice cream.  Be sure to draw pictures on the ballots so they know what they are choosing between.

Once everyone has voted, take the ballot box out and together with the children count the votes.  They can see how democracy works when you explain that the most votes wins.

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