Free Printables for Election Lessons and Activities

I remember back in 1972 during the Nixon-McGovern election, our school immersed us in the political process. We staged debates, mock elections, explored voting booths and campaigned for our candidate. It was a great experience for me and I know other students felt the same way. Now in 2008 we have the opportunity to bring the whole election and political process into our classrooms or home school environment. And we have 34 years of technology to help us. Here are some resources with free materials and print ables for parents, educators and group leaders to explore with students. Each site offers free printable lessons, puzzles, quizzes, games, writing prompts and more. There are materials for all ages offered on these sites.

EdHelper is an old friend when it comes to free printable lessons and materials. There are Super Tuesday links and resources and many election themed units. On the homepage is a source to create your own crossword puzzles; this way you can tailor the puzzles to cover what you have been teaching in class. You can include election vocabulary, timelines, issues etc. There are countless links to units on political history, electoral college, Inauguration Day and election information. You'll find units for all grade levels including some really in-depth high school level materials. On the Super Tuesday link, I found over 50 printable materials for election based reading comprehension, non-fiction, fiction, history, election issues, worksheets, quizzes, activities and lots more.

abcteach features some really clever lessons on the whole election process with links to favorite children's' stories, KWL charts, voting materials, graphing activities, letter writing activities, creative writing, response writing based upon candidate debates, comparison and contrast activities between past elections, history connections, literature connections, mock elections, debate rubric, student senate formats, issues awareness. There are puzzle and game generator links, and graphic organizers for understanding foreign policy, how to vote, timeline of voting rights, constitutional information, branches of government, political parties and other election related subjects.

EducationWorld.com offers a sophisticated, multi-cultural look at the political system in general. I like the interactive maps and timelines available for students use. You will also find many materials specific to the USA 2008 election. I would definitely assign students to explore this website for their own research.

You should be able to find just about any subject, grade level or style of project that you need on these websites. And your students will be enriched by the time you take to help them understand our political system.