Miss. Martin / 4th Grade Social Studies / 4.1.

20

Voting/Electoral College Lesson

I. TOPIC:
The student will be learning about how you vote in the United States and how the
Electoral College works. They will understand that the President is not elected
based on popular vote but by the Electoral College.
Vocab Words: Electoral College, Swing State, Safe States, ballot

II. OBJECTIVES:
After a teacher lead lesson on the voting and the Electoral College TSWBAT
identify how US Presidential elections are different that just picking my popular
vote measured by teacher observation.
After an independent simulation guided by the teacher TSWBAT demonstrate
why candidates might focus on certain states and understand the electoral college
to the teacher’s satisfaction.

III. STANDARDS
• PA Academic Standard 5.3.4.A: Identify the roles of the three branches of
government.

IV. TEACHING PROCEDURES:

Anticipatory Set: 3 mins
a. As class begins, I will hand out the voting ballots. I will tell students to fill out
their vote and place their ballot in the box. The students will have choices to vote
for their favorite meal for “President”.
b. We will then count up the vote and see who won

Development 1: 4 mins
1) Put up the Powerpoint of the Guided Notes
2) Go over the requirements to voting. Ask the student how old they think you need
to be in order to vote. 18 years old. Have them write down the answers on their
note sheet as we go. Ask the students if they think you have to be a citizen. Yes.
Ask the student if they think there are any other requirements to be able to vote.
Every state has their own requirement that vary by state.

Development 2: 8 mins
1) Does the presidential candidate who wins the election always get the most votes?
No, because the United States uses a system call the Electoral College. Has
anyone ever heard of that before?
2) What is it?
i. It is a group of people appointed by each state to elect the President and
Vice President.
 Miss. Martin / 4th Grade Social Studies / 4.1.20

ii. Each state is given a number of electors based on their population. Do you
remember what else was determined by population of each state? (The
number of Representatives each state has). There is a total of 538 electors.
3) How does it work?
i. You cast your vote, just like we all cast our votes for our lunch time
president when we came in.
ii. They add up the number of votes for each candidate in your state.
iii. Whichever candidate gets the most votes in your state wins that state
which means that they get all of the electoral votes from that state so if
they win PA they get 20.
iv. The goal is to get 270 electoral votes.
v. Show them the map of the number of electoral votes each state has.
1. Ask what are some ways that we can get at least 270 electoral
votes
2. Which states they think candidates would like to win and why?
Independent Practice: 12 mins
a. Each student will also have a map of the state with their electoral vote count. As pairs the
students will each pick a color. (The students will have the map in their notes but I will
also print out maps just for the simulation)
b. The student then pick whichever state they want to start with and they will then roll their
dice and whoever get the highest number wins the state and they color it on their map.
a. If it is a tie re-roll
c. The students will roll for each state until they have rolled for all 50 states plus
Washington D.C. They will then add up all of their electoral votes and see who won the
election.
d. After the students are finished with their elections I will ask if their were certain states
that they started with and why they started with them. I am looking for answer that
involve starting with states with more electoral votes
Closure: 3 mins
a. Turn and Talk: How does the mini election we did at the beginning of class
compare to how the election works in the United States? How is it the small how
is it different?
a. Have a few students share their ideas.
b. End with a riddle: What is a presidential candidates favorite number? 270 because
that is how many electoral votes they need.

V. MATERIALS:
Powerpoint, Notes for the students to fill out, ballots, maps, colored pencils, dice
(one per student)

VI. ADAPTATIONS/PLAN MODIFICATIONS:

 Miss. Martin / 4th Grade Social Studies / 4.1.20

Important vocabulary words will be repeated on defined. They will also be written
on the board for the students to see.
The slides will be animated so that only one question or section of text appears at
a time so students aren’t tempted to work ahead and not listen.
If I am running out of time during the lesson instead of having the students break
up into groups and do their own electoral college activity, we will do it together as
a class.
If there is extra time, we will watch the School House Rock Video: Electoral
College Kids Civics Lesson Cartoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFJ2e82Nvnw

VII. EVALUATION:
1) Formative – Guided Notes, Question and Answer, electoral college game, Turn
and Talk to a Neighbor, walking around
2) Summative – The student will have a review test on the last day of the field

VIII. REFLECTION:
1) Did the students understand what actually happens when we vote?

2) Were the students engaged the entire lesson?

3) Did I take Mrs. Dreves suggestions into account?

4) Did I implement Mrs. Riddles suggestions?

5) What would I do differently if I taught this lesson again?