Mini-Lesson

The Election Process

Grades 4-6

Students will learn about the steps in the election process.

1. What does a person have to do if he or she wants to be President of the United States? Ask students this question before reading the timeforkids.com article, The Battle Goes On.

2. After reading the article, point out the term primary election, in the first sentence. "Senator Hillary Clinton won big in Pennsylvania's primary election on April 22." Ask: What is a primary election? (A primary election is statewide election to help nominate candidates for the presidential race.) Challenge students to describe what happens in a primary election, based on what they read in the article.

3. Explain that Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both want to be the Democratic nominee for President. The Republican nominee will be Senator John McCain.

4. Tell students the next steps in the election process are the conventions. Both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention will take place this summer. At the conventions, members of each political party decide, and announce to the American people, who will be their party's Presidential candidate. Then, the Democratic Presidential nominee and the Republican Presidential nominee will face off in a general election. The general election always takes place on the second Tuesday in November.

EXTEND THE LESSON Have students complete this worksheet from the timeforkids.com Teaching Resources archive: Road to the White House.