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Exploring the Presidential Election in One Pre-K Classroom

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Norline Wild
10/18/2024

Editors' Note: In this blog, one educator describes how she explored concepts of fairness, perspective taking, difference, and voting during a previous election. What might an exploration of voting and an election look like in your own context or setting?

As another election approaches, educators can integrate this significant event into early learning programs. As highlighted in the Spring 2024 edition of Young Children, “early childhood is not too early for social studies, which includes examining neighborhoods, community, and what it means to be a member of a group” (4). While the political landscape may seem contentious and divisive this election season, our young children are ready and able to explore and learn about the world around them, including developing an understanding of what voting means.
 
This is not to say that teachers should stage a mock presential election in November. Rather, this time presents an opportunity to promote early social studies learning through the exploration of ourselves, families, neighborhoods and communities, and society. We can support them in problem solving, setting shared goals, understanding others' perspectives, promoting fairness, and ensuring inclusivity for everyone. And we can establish a foundation for understanding citizenship and leadership by building an equitable, caring community of young learners and designing and carrying out a comprehensive curriculum with meaningful learning goals, both of which are key areas of practice in the DAP framework (NAEYC 2020).
 

Exploring the Election in My Community of Learners

I integrated an exploration of the national election in my pre-K class during the 2020 election season. At that time, I created and implemented a social studies unit with children focused on exploring identity, celebrating diversity, recognizing injustice, and taking social action like voting (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, with Goins 2020).
 
To begin, my focus was on establishing a strong community of learners, intentionally creating experiences that foster belonging, cooperation, trust, and collaboration. I thought it was important to discuss how we work together, create trust, and have respect and appreciation for our commonalities and diverse identities; with that foundation, we could move into talking more specifically about the meaning and purpose of voting. Educators can intentionally create experiences that foster belonging, cooperation, trust, and collaboration. In my classroom, the children shared about themselves and their families. Then, we explored the idea of a community and how a community works. For example, the children considered how we work together in our learning community to keep our environment safe and supportive of joyful and active engagement.  
 

An Exploration of the Meaning and Purpose of Voting

As I gave the class space to develop and refine their definitions of voting, they landed on the idea that voting meant “to make a choice.” To ground their understanding, the children voted on a variety of topics that were relevant and meaningful to them. For example, we held votes on our favorite food, pet, and school activity. With each vote, I was able to incorporate math and literacy by using numbers, tally marks, and words to develop counting, cardinality, one-to-one correspondence, and letter/sound identification.
 
Additionally, picture books foster powerful exploration and conversation. For example, in Vote for Our Future!, by Margaret McNamara and illustrated by Micah Player, we observed characters who were also young children as they embarked on a campaign to motivate adults to vote. In the process, the children in the book learn about civic engagement. I used this book as a springboard for an activity where we created posters that promoted voting and hung them in the classroom. The ideas in this book also helped to initiate discussions between the children and their home caregivers about this important action.
 
After the children spent time learning about the meaning and purpose of voting, we connected back to the qualities of our equitable, caring community and we expanded on it to include what it meant to be a good leader. On a large sheet of chart paper, the children offered their ideas, including “Is kind to people”; “Says nice words”; “Follows directions”; “Could be anyone”; “Takes care of people”; and “Does good things, like gives people stuff.”
 
As the children in my setting started to think about leaders, we made connections to leadership roles in the classroom. For example, every day, they were encouraged to take on leadership roles in our setting, such as putting their own coats and backpacks in their cubbies, checking on a classmate who seemed sad, and washing their hands to keep them and their peers safe and healthy. This helped them realize that they could be leaders. Leadership abilities go hand in hand with self-advocacy, self-awareness, confidence, collaboration, communication, relationship building, and shared decision making (Dorsey 2024). Children can better relate to and understand leadership when they witness it being modeled and practiced in the world around them. With this new school year upon us, we can see it as a time to develop young children’s social studies knowledge and skills in connection to the world around them.

Want to Learn More?


The following resources can help educators intentionally integrate approaches and content to address the skills, knowledge, and dispositions children need to understand what it means to be group members and active community participants. 

Teaching for Equity and Agency: Intentional Strategies That Support Anti-Bias Education | NAEYC

In this article, the authors share how the Complementary Curriculum Approach can guide educators in designing, presenting, and scaffolding curriculum aligned with children’s interests to strengthen and deepen their learning experiences.

“But All Your Walls Are Blank!”: Using the Classroom Environment to Promote Civics in the Primary Grades | NAEYC

Drawing on research and their primary classroom experiences, the authors of this article describe how teachers can foster learners’ civics knowledge and skills by cocreating learning environments, making materials accessible, promoting learner agency through classroom procedures, and scaffolding approaches to problem solving.

Exploring Families’ Language Practices Through a Social Studies Inquiry in Kindergarten | NAEYC

The four authors of this article share how they integrated multilingual learners’ language practices and cultural understandings in a kindergarten social studies unit focused on families that engaged the children and their families.

Spreading Happiness: A Preschool Classroom in Washington, DC, Investigates Citizenship and Makes a Statement—“Be Happy!” (Voices) | NAEYC

In this Voices of Practitioners article, a Washington, DC-based preschool educator shares how she implemented a project focused on civic action with her class of 3-year-olds and how the children learned about what it means to be citizens.

 

References 

Derman-Sparks, L., & J.O. Edwards, with C.M. Goins. 2020. Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: NAEYC. 

Dorsey, E., N. Danner, A.L. Lewis, & M.M. Ostrosky. 2024. “Learning, Practicing, and Exhibiting Leadership: Helping Children Develop as Classroom Leaders.” Young Children 79 (1): 50−58. 

NAEYC. 2020. “Developmentally Appropriate Practice.” Position statement. Washington, DC: NAEYC. NAEYC.org/resources/position-statements/dap/contents. 

Audience: Administrator (director or principal), Faculty, Student (higher education), Teacher
Age: Early Primary, Kindergarten, Preschool
Topics: Other Topics, Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Subject Areas, Social Studies
Norline Wild

Norline Wild, PhD, is an assistant professor in the College of Education at Niagara University, New York. Before becoming a teacher educator, Norline was a preschool and pre-K teacher. Norline’s practice-based research focuses on the power of picture books to promote social justice. She is committed to supporting educators in creating inclusive and equitable classroom communities.

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