SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. - Caitlyn Schmitigal's kindergarten class at Washington Elementary School in Sault Ste. Marie voted this past Tuesday on something more important to them than the Presidential Election.
They voted on the best tasting Oreo cookie.
"I wanted the children to learn the importance of voting with lower stakes because they're kindergartners. So I decided to have them vote for their favorite Oreo!"
This is Schmitigal's eighth year of teaching kindergarten for Sault Area Public Schools.
She wanted something fun for the students to do about voting but yet learning it the simplest way possible.
"The process of choosing their favorite was easy since most children have context of what an Oreo is. I know that there can be heaviness and controversy surrounding Election Day so I tried to think about what I wanted the main message to be for them and that was that voting is their civic duty and also a privilege. They're kindergartners, so I wanted there to be a lesson that was fun, but also would stick with them so as they age and become adults, they remember that voting is important," she said.
The day before Election Day, the students had to answer some questions in order to vote.
"On Monday, we applied to vote by answering the questions, 'Are you a hard worker?' and 'Are you a kind friend?' If they answered yes, which all did, they could receive a voter registration card which had a picture they drew of themselves, their name, age, teacher, and the date," she said.
Then came the big day.
"On Tuesday, we talked about some key terms such as voting, ballot, polling place, booth, and candidate. We discussed how our voting choices are private and that we do not have to share who we vote for with others if we choose not to. We discussed that voting age is 18 and that adults on that day were voting for president. They cannot vote for president because they are not old enough, but they could share their opinions in another way for something fun.
"So I set up a voting booth where they would present their voter card and showed them how to fill in a ballot and we all got a turn in the booth. We submitted our ballots to a ballot box, received a sticker, and then I counted up all the votes and announced the winner. Then we all got to eat the Oreos."
And the winning cookie flavor was?
"I gave them three choices. A standard Oreo, a golden Oreo, or a birthday cake Oreo. Birthday cake and Golden tied with seven votes, but a vote for birthday cake was mine, so if we're just counting student votes, golden was the winner. Standard Oreos had two votes."
