With the Electoral Commission’s popular Your Voice, Your Choice resource for schools, students use social inquiry to explore the relationship between voting, New Zealand’s system of government and issues that face local communities and electorates.
It provides a range of engaging activities, with supplementary resources, designed to encourage students’ understanding and enthusiasm for the voting process.
The focus is on connecting the voting system to students’ own lives to deepen their understanding about how New Zealand’s system of government operates. The students will consider the relationship between local issues and our national system of government, and how they themselves can participate in this system.
These units were first developed to support the 2011 Kids Voting election programme and now provide teachers with a stand alone resource introducing voting and democratic process in New Zealand. They are designed to be followed in order, but you are welcome to adapt any activity for your own planning.
All units are aligned with the vision, principles, values and key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum and link to the social sciences learning area. The units are aimed at Level 5 of the curriculum, but the material is flexible for different levels. You are encouraged to adapt this sequence of learning activities to meet the specific needs and experiences of your students.
Individual teaching units and accompanying resources are available for download below. The full teaching units are available for download under the table of individual resources below.
