Elementary Class Page

Mock Election

Refusing to accept a sideline seat in this year's momentous Presidential Election, the elementary students held an election of their own. On November 3rd, the day before Election Day, the class conducted a mock election. Early in October the sixth graders embarked on learning how to write computer code in order to create an electronic voting program on the school computers (with the help of a computer savvy parent). Quite resourceful.

The fourth graders informed the parents about the election via email. They stipulated the necessity of registering and assigned precincts. Finally November 3rd arrived. The 4th, 5th and 6th graders worked the polling places complete with verification of registration and Election Judges. At the end of the day they gathered the data from all of the voting machines and announced a winner.

El Sistema

During the daily discussion of current events one afternoon, the children downloaded a clip from "60 Minutes" about a social program in Venezuela designed to help the poorest children of this country have the opportunity to learn and play classical music. The children were so inspired, they asked if they could raise money for the program.

To date they have raised $2,500 with events like Coffee Sales, Movie Night, and a Spare Change Drive. There are event chairs, communications directors, and an accountant. The children opened a bank account to safely keep the money. They have used their skill in speaking Spanish to communicate with the program directors in Venezuela and are continuing to raise even more money. This has provided the children with countless life lessons in social responsibility, finances, organization, planning, leadership, communication and more.

Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema, and Maestro Gustavo Dudamel honor Countryside Students - click here to read full article.