Schechter Shavua: October 26, 2020

Democracy in Progress!

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Parparim (grades K-1) students are campaigning for class “pet.” With wonderfully Parparim-created names Ms. Spotty Mane (Team Giraffe) and Ms. Squeaky Flower (Team Fish) the teams got right to work building their campaign platforms and creating signs and buttons to support their candidates. The class will be registering to vote with valid identification and CT addresses, and will all make informed decisions as they cast their votes on November 3rd. Which animal will emerge victorious? Stay tuned! Click HERE for more photos from the Campaign Trail!

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As part of their 50 States Social Studies unit, Rimonim (grades 2-3) will delve into the reasons why the colonists came to the United States, along with the concepts of democracy, monarchy, the three branches of government, and checks and balances. On election day, they will read If I Ran For President and hold an election in their classroom for their stuffed animals, Kemba the Koala and Noodles the Corgi.

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The Gesher students (grades 4-5) are learning about their role in government by investigating the underlying question “What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States?” The students began by talking about their rights and responsibilities as American citizens. They looked more closely at the responsibility of educating oneself about government and the responsibility of participating to make the country better. (Schechter’s core value of Klal Yisrael - community - in action!) This week, students will complete a webquest to learn more about democracy, elections, the two-party system, the process of becoming president, and voting. This unit is being supplemented with iCivics, a website that engages students in games relating to the United States government. Their favorite game? “Win the Whitehouse!”

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Habonim students (grades 6-7) participated in an activity to learn about the mathematics behind different methods of voting. They simulated a popular vote, a representative vote, and a vote by the electoral college in order to elect their favorite candy. Students discussed the “fairness” of these methods and discussed what “fairness” in this context means to them. Finally, they put their heads together to use their proportional reasoning to decide how best to divide 100 votes among the different sized groups in the class. At the end of the activity, many students felt that the popular vote was the most “fair.” And the winner of the popular vote was…. Sour Patch Kids!