Sticker Race 2008: A Guide for Parents
The Democracy Project’s Sticker Race ’08 activity and online community offers many opportunities for you and your child to examine election-related topics such as issues, persuasion, and map-reading.
- Participate in the Sticker Race ‘08. Work together to come up with one or more stickers to submit for voting. You can also print out your child’s sticker(s) or e-mail them to family and friends.
- Examine the Sticker Race ’08 Map to see which stickers are most popular in your state. You might compare the popular stickers in your state with other states.
- Revisit the Sticker Race ’08 to see how your child’s sticker is collecting votes.
Topics To Talk About:
Issues
Discuss with your child why he or she chose particular issue(s) for which to create stickers with questions such as:
- Why is this issue important to you personally?
- How do you think this issue affects us a family?
- How is this issue important in our community?
When looking at the Sticker Race ’08 Map, you may have noticed that certain issues are more popular in some states and less popular in others. Why do you think that happens?
Bring up the possibility that if you visit the site regularly over the course of several months, some of the less popular issues might become more important. What might occur to make that change?
The Power of Persuasion
Discuss with your child how, when creating a sticker, he or she selected words, symbols and colors to emphasize a personal stand on the issues to persuade others to feel the same way. Possible questions might include:
- Why did you choose the words and images you did when creating your sticker?
- Do you think it’s a powerful thing to do to capture someone’s attention and persuade them?
- What are some other examples of this from television, books, movies, songs, organizations, heroes, and maybe even family, community members, or friends?
- Is there a responsibility that comes with using persuasion? Could persuasion be either good or bad?
Slogans are a big part of advertising messages as well as political messages. Visit a site to read famous slogans, such as:
http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/slogans/famous-slogan-01.htm
Can you recall your favorite slogan? Which ones really get on your nerves? Do you and your children share the same “tastes” in slogans?
Now view some political slogans such as those found at:
http://www.presidentsusa.net/campaignslogans.html
Discuss these slogans with your child. Have how slogans changed throughout the years? How would you improve or renew a slogan?
Try a scavenger hunt the next time your family goes shopping. Make a list of colors before you leave. Keep a tally of the colors you see used in the stores and restaurants you visit. Which colors were most used? Can you think of reasons why different colors are used in public spaces? If you were decorating your home, which colors would you use and in which rooms would you use them and why?
Reading and Understanding the U.S. Map
When looking at the Sticker Race ’08 Map, you might ask your child these questions:
- Can you find our state on the map?
- What states touch our state? Did you know that touching means “bordering”? Run your finger along the border of the states.
- If you look North, South, East, and West of our state, what do you see?
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