During election season, offer daily lessons on candidates running for mayor, congress, governor or president. Encourage students to research their favorite candidate and address the class about why they prefer this candidate. On Election Day, hold a mock election allowing students to vote for their preferred candidate. This lesson teaches students the importance of voting, particularly if different candidates win at school and in the actual election.
Many young students have difficulties grasping the abstract nature of governmental structure. Provide students with eye-catching visual representations. Ideally, these visuals should represent the people as the most important part of the government. Try placing the people at the top of a chart and as the biggest part of the chart and place the president, congress and other authority figures at the bottom. This helps students understand that power flows from the people and makes it easier for them to understand how government is structured.
Most students are exposed to the news, politics and other civics-related items on a daily basis. Frequently, however, they don't understand what they see and are unsure of what questions to ask. Allow students to pick topics to cover in civics class. When students have choices, they are more likely to be actively engaged in the lessons and see civics topics as a relevant to their own lives. Allow a different student -- or a group of students -- to choose the topic each day until each student has had a chance to cover a topic she finds interesting.
One of the most engaging and educational ways to teach students the value of civic engagement is to hold classroom elections. Allow all students the opportunity to run for class officer positions and then hold a "primary" election to narrow the election down to two or three students. Allow students to make campaign speeches, encouraging them to focus on real issues within the classroom that they can change. Then hold elections for class officers.