Mock Election at Preschool: Primrose School of Park Cities

At Primrose, Election Day is our opportunity to show Pre-K and Kindergarten students the value of democracy and citizenship while educating them on the importance of voting. Our students had the opportunity to see first-hand how voicing their opinions at the ballot box translates into real life results by choosing a presidential Primrose Friend mascot and a snack to enjoy later in the day. By hosting an Election Day event in late October/early November, learning about the election process and voting is made fun and creates a great educational opportunity for our students.

Election Day at Primrose is tied to the Primrose Schools’ Balanced Learning© approach and our Character Development program. We balance purposeful play with nurturing guidance from teachers to encourage curiosity, creativity, confidence and compassion. This way, our students learn the foundational skills to develop Active Minds, Healthy Bodies and Happy Hearts.   

Students learn that responsibilities of citizenship are obligations to contribute to the common good. Election Day at Primrose is a way to help our students understand the importance of civic involvement and citizenship early on. Children begin to learn these responsibilities at a very early age through activities and projects that help them become aware of their community of friends in their classroom and their neighborhood.  

At Primrose, we also teach students about giving back to the local community. Voting is a great way for each of them to give back and understand how respectfully voicing their opinions can have real-life results.     

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Primrose School of Park Cities
Thursday. October 29, 2020

The 2020 Presidential Election is only a few days away! Since this is an event that only happens every four years, Primrose School of Park Cities realizes the importance of introducing this concept to even the littlest of learners.

This week, our prekindergarten and Private Kindergarten classrooms held a mock election that focused on learning about and discussing the importance of the civic responsibility of voting.

The concept of an election can be abstract and difficult to understand at such a young age, so to in order to introduce the civic lesson, classes began by reading Grace for President, by Kelly DiPucchio: described as "A fresh, fun, and "thought-provoking" New York Times bestseller about the American electoral college and why every vote counts".

The school’s Director of Education, Bela Desai, spent time with each class, explaining the basic rules of voting and how people vote in the privacy of the polling booth. The school also curtained off a section of the hallway and treated it as a polling booth, where the children would find a poster board ballot where they could indicate their choices. The children were first asked to vote for their favorite Primrose Pal, each representing a different “party”: Percy the Rooster (representing Rice Krispie Treat Party) or Mia the Mouse ( representing the Popsicle Party).

Students went into the booth one at a time and indicated their choices with a card under the photo of their choice.

Early in the afternoon, the children's votes were tallied, Mia the Mouse and the Popsicle party won by a landslide.