Second grade students head to the polls

Echo Horizon School second grade students in Mrs. Henderson’s and Ms. Valladares’ classes had an election of their own last Tuesday.

The preparations kicked off about a month ago as they began a unit on elections as part of their Social Studies curriculum.

They had recently finished reading Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne and selected two main characters from the story, Phileas Fogg and Passepartout, as their candidates.

They began by learning all about campaign slogans and the many jobs of the president.  Then, the students worked in small groups to create a campaign ad for their candidate of choice using iMovie on their iPads.

 “The level of engagement we saw when the children worked on short iMovies for their favorite candidate was impressive. They wrote their lines, made their props and did all of the filming and editing,” said second-grade teacher Roz Henderson.

Second grade students Anabel and Noah thought the best part of the election unit was a visit from Pico Riviera councilman Brent Tercero, who spoke to the about local government.

The students shared their knowledge of how our president is elected and learned how our city councils make laws and help the citizens.

Before Election Day, the students watched each other’s campaign ads, as a last minute attempt to convince any undecided voters.

When Nov. 6 arrived, they were as ready as they could be to head to the polls.

When the students were asked to reflect back on what they learned about elections, second-grader Molly said, ”I learned that you have to be a good sport about it,” and Mason added “you shouldn’t brag if you candidate wins.”

These are important sentiments from a couple of  from which some adults might learn a thing or two!