To get students thinking about the job that the President has, have them brainstorm ideas about what they would do if they were the president. Discuss what problems they think the President has to solve and how they would try to solve them. Show them pictures of the White House, where the President lives and works. Students can draw a picture of themselves as the President and complete the sentence, "If I were President, I would..."
Explain to students that the President has a lot of responsibilities, so it takes a very special person to be elected. Ask students to think of qualities they would like the President to have. For example, list qualities like "hardworking," "smart," "fair" or "strong." Working together, invite them to rank the qualities by which ones they feel are most important. As disagreements come up about which qualities are most important, discuss how many people have different opinions about various topics and voting is a method used to decide.
To introduce students to the concept of voting, offer opportunities to make decisions in the classroom with a vote. For example, show two books to read at story time and ask the class to vote for the one they would like to hear. Conduct a mock election for a "Classroom Helper" with two familiar storybook or television characters. Invite students to make up slogans or campaign posters for each of the characters. On the day of your election, make a voting booth for students to cast their ballots and give them an "I Voted" sticker. Read the votes together to find out which character was elected to be "Classroom Helper."
Show students how issues often have different viewpoints by comparing and contrasting the traditional story of The Three Little Pigs with the book "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieska, which tells the story from the Big Bad Wolf's perspective. After reading both stories, ask students to think about how the stories were different and if they believe the pigs' side of the story or the wolf's. Invite students to vote for the character they think is telling the truth and explain why. Share the results of your election as a class.