It doesn’t matter how old your students are. A strong, healthy democracy depends on an informed population and that begins by talking about and teaching about elections in school.

Here are a few resources to help you support elections.

My elementary school did this when I was a student and I still remember it. Every student chose their preferred candidate, colored the corresponding symbol, and it was displayed on the main bulletin board at the school.

Get your class involved, your section, or even your whole school to see who students would vote for. Don’t let them write their names on it. Voting is anonymous after all.

You can edit the Democratic, Republican, and Third-Party candidate placards to include the actual candidate’s name.

Print your own I Voted stickers for election day (or any other classroom election you are holding) and encourage students to be excited about voting. Everyone loves stickers.

These stickers were formatted for Avery labels, both inkjet and laser.

When my child was quite young I wanted to talk about elections with him. I wanted him to know that voting was important and I wanted him to have memories of his parents discussing voting with him. But for young students, politics is too much. Despite being a political person myself, I would not want someone talking to my five or six-year-old about politics.

This resource teaches about elections, not politics. There is no mention of the real political parties in the United States nor their ideologies. It is just teaching about voting and is aimed at very young students.

So not exactly an election resource but I wanted to have a little fun. I found the reported height for various Presidents and First Ladies and made a height chart. Print the pages, cut where instructed, tape the pages together, and voila. Height chart.

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