Mini-Lesson

Campaigning and the Presidency

Grades K-1

Objective: Students will learn about the process of campaigning.

1. Tell students that candidates for President must campaign to convince people to vote for them. Ask: How do they do this? (They make speeches; they travel across the country talking to people; they put commercials on TV; they have websites with information about themselves; they give out campaign pins and hang up campaign posters.)

2. Tell students that they are going to “campaign” for one type of fruit. Their aim is to make a speech that convinces others to eat the fruit.

3. Brainstorm with students a list of fruits. Assign pairs of students one fruit from the list. Tell students that they will work together to come up with ideas. Then assign one student in each pair to be the writer and the other student to be the speechmaker.

4. Tell students that in their speeches they should first introduce themselves (My name is ____.), then tell why they are making the speech (I’m here to tell you _________.) and finally give two reasons people should eat the fruit (You should eat _____ because _________.)

5. Allow time for students to practice and then recite their speeches to the class. Remind them to speak loudly and clearly so that others can hear them. After each speech, discuss the following: Would you eat _______? What convinced you?

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:

Hold a class discussion. Ask: Why do presidential candidates give speeches? What should candidates include in their speeches to convince people to vote for them?

Have students create campaign posters for their fruit. Then vote on the best fruit campaign and graph the results.