Vermont Votes for Kids: A project of the Vermont Secretary of State

Curriculum for Grades 5-8, Teacher Materials for Lesson 4:
Glossary of Election Terms

This is a project that could be completed by students from grades 5-8. A number of ideas and activities are presented in five lessons to form one complete civics curriculum. Individual teachers are free to add, subtract, or edit as they wish, depending on their interests, time constraints, and local conditions.

ACTIVITY:

Spelling/vocabulary words can be generated from the project. Another possibility is to let students generate their own glossary lists with definitions.

Examples:

Election President Representative Senator Congress Governor Judge Ballot Absentee Majority

Plurality Electorate Officers Polling place Campaign Elected official Lobby Interdependence Politics Political party

Supplemental Activity:

Ask students to describe all of the places and occasions where people might vote. This could include class or club officers, team captains, and entertainment awards. See how long a list they can generate.

Desired outcome from the project is that students will be able to describe the importance of being an active and informed voter and will make plans to become voters when they reach age eighteen.

Vermont Secretary of State http://www.vermontvotesforkids.com