Show Us Your Plans! 2016 Presidential Election!

#WhatImPlanningWednesday

A few weeks back some of our favorite Instagram friends started a new weekly series called What I’m Planning Wednesday and we’re joining them today! Take a peek at our plans…

Our new social studies/ELA unit is the 2016 US Presidential Election and we’re using our pocketbooks to help us with this rigorous unit. So many of our students struggle with understanding the presidential election process and we’ve found that our pocketbook method has worked wonders for our kiddos in other content areas. Our Election Mega Bundle follows this same weekly routine and is presented from an unbiased perspective. These pocketbooks are easy to assemble and include a weekly lesson plan.

Each week there’s a new topic. Here’s our big picture unit plan:

·       Week 1- The U.S President & Executive Branch

·       Week 2- Donald Trump

·       Week 3- Hillary Clinton

·       Week 4- The U.S Presidential Election

·       Election Writing Craftivity during week 4

It’s easiest to plan an entire mega unit at one time. Therefore, organization is key. We suggest putting all prepped materials for each week-long unit in separate bins. 

Below is a close up of how we stay organized for each daily task:

Each day is paper clipped or binder clipped and has a yellow post-it note so it’ll stick out to us :) They’re arranged in chronological order so once we complete the day’s task, the next day’s materials are ready to go!

Of course we try to incorporate technology when we can. We’re planning on starting each week with a short video for our anticipatory set. You can find those videos here:

·       Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skqcv9ePWLU

·       Hillary Clinton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrpMrF6lALM

·       Executive Branch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TssZ9Uma1-w&list=PLzvRx_johoA8lRJ3DYuSLMpt9VXBkqjL7&index=3

·       U.S. Presidential Election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyIFqf3XH24

Providing our population of students with visuals is a must! This chalkboard is dedicated to the new Social Studies unit and it will remain up for the entirety of the unit. *Warning about the picture below: it’s wonderful that the sun shines right into the classroom but not when we needed a good blog picture!

We’re also using this election craftivity to solidify our understanding of the election. It’s easy to prep and only requires students to use pencils and coloring utensils. We’re excited to post these in our hallway!

Show us your plans by using the hashtag! #whatimplanningwednesday and check out our FREEBIE for this unit!