Bad Kitty Runs for President

Hilariously Educational!

Nick Bruel takes us on a hilariously entertaining (yet educational) journey with Bad Kitty as she learns about the election process in Bad Kitty for President. This children's graphic novel if filled with fantastic (an also hilarious) illustrations as the narrator talks Bad Kitty through the election she is running in against Big Kitty, since Old Kitty has already served his 8 years and can't run again. Big Kitty hits the campaign trail: kissing babies, throwing fits, getting donations and more. But does Bad Kitty (or Big Kitty) have what it takes to become president? Find out who wins, while learning an awful lot about our own election process, I promise you will laugh (and probably learn something too)! And seriously teachers, what better way to teach your kiddos about the election if it is an election year or if teaching voting is in your Social Studies curriculum (like it was for me in 2nd grade this past year!)

Reading Level: DRA 40
                      Lexile 690L
                      Guided Reading R
*I think the reading level is so high because of all the content vocabulary, my second graders loved this book and could handle reading it with some help on the content words.*

Teachers... here are some resources to help you to use this book in your classroom...

Web Resources:

• Activities: This link provides some fun activities you can do with your class after reading.
• Trailer: Show your class this hilarious book trailer video before reading!
• Series Website: Find out about the author and the other Bad Kitty books here!

Vocabulary: All these words (with really fantastically funny definitions from Edna) are in the back of the book. Be sure to directly teach these words as without vocabulary instruction this book will be difficult for many 2nd and 3rd graders.
President, office, primary, election, nominee, party, delegates, convention, caucus, 527 group, debate, moderator, polling station, ballot, write-in candidate, register, absentee ballot, democracy

Activities:
Before Reading: Create a KWL with your class with the title: Voting and Elections. Have your kiddos generate responses for what they know and want to learn about elections.

During Reading: (This could work as an after reading activity too)
Have your kiddos create a vocabulary journal for an election.
Students can write the word, write their own definition then draw a picture to help remind them what the word means.
When I teach with a book with so much vocabulary, I often break the class into 4-6 groups and give each group a word. Each member will write the word, their own definition and draw a picture. When the groups are done, they will "jigsaw" (mix the groups up so one member of each word group is now in the mixed group i.e. you have a group for president, office, primary and election, there are 4 kiddos in each group. When they jigsaw EACH group will have one member from president, office, primary and election)
The kiddos teach their new group about THEIR word. If there is time, the students can choose one or more of the words they learned from a group member and add the word to their vocab journal.

After Reading: Finish the L from your KWL, having students generate responses to what they learned about elections.
Discussion/Journal: Do you agree with who became the Cat's president? Why or why not?

Cross Curricular: Social Studies
You are already teaching a Social Studies concept just by reading this book to your class, but why not take it a step further?

• Have a class election: Read some other great election books such a Duck for President or Grace for President. Have your kiddos run for president of the class. What kind of power will the president have? How will the class hold the election? You can have lots of fun with this!
• Instead of voting for a person, vote for what the class can do as an extra activity. The trick is, the class has to figure out how they can get the ideas down to only 2 to vote for. How will they promote their favorite idea? How will they tally the votes?
• Find out if your local town hall will give your students a tour through the voting process: standing in line to vote, filling out the voting card, submitting it into the machine, etc. Maybe they will even let your kiddos vote in a mock election!