In preparation for Election Day, Lawndale Elementary School students geared up for their very own vote. On Tuesday, Nov. 5, Lawndale Elementary voted to elect its first ever mascot.
“As long as I have been principal, Lawndale’s lack of a mascot has been an issue,” shared Talina Knight, Lawndale Elementary School Principal. “Not only does it create branding issues, since the other Tupelo Public School District schools all have mascots, but it also hurts morale. The students want a mascot.”
Gifted Education Program teacher Denise Carter brought the mascot election idea to Knight at the beginning of the 2024 school year.
When planning lesson units, Carter and her Challenge Program colleagues try to make learning applicable to the real world, Carter said. With the historic election upon us, it made sense to create lessons that related to it.
Knight describes Carter as one of her “big ideas” people.
“Because it was an election year and Denise came to me with this idea, I thought it would be a perfect time to use something that’s significant and meaningful to (the students) to teach them about the election process,” Knight said. “The kids got into it and had a lot of fun with it.”
As part of the Challenge program election unit, Carter and the other Challenge teachers taught leadership, debate, propaganda, problem-solving and more to their third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students.
The unit started in September with the Great Cookie Debate. All the Challenge students brought their favorite cookie to school, and they had to explain what it was and what made it the best. Everyone voted to choose the best cookie, and once it was chosen, they made a commercial for the cookie using propaganda techniques. It helped show the students how to build a platform and how to campaign.
From there, the students moved into the mascot election. Each Challenge student came up with a mascot, which had to be a non mythical animal, and they had to show what kind of leadership qualities the animal possessed.
“We also talked about the importance of respecting the other candidates and how we don’t have to agree, but we still must respect their decision,” Carter said.
The Challenge students put forward their mascots in a primary, with slideshows and presentations on the animals, and the three most popular were selected to be candidates: the dolphin, the golden retriever, and the panther.
From there, the Challenge students were divided into three groups to start campaigning for the mascots in preparation for the all-student vote. They created flyers, posters, slogans, platforms and even video commercials.
“We bought costumes for each of the three animals,” Knight said. “And so they went out at recess and campaigned with all the grades and shook hands and kissed babies. Different students from all three grades of the gifted classes wore the costumes.”
The students got excited, and told the mascots at recess who they wanted to vote for. “I even had a couple of them dress up as panthers for Halloween, just because of our election,” Knight said.
The Challenge students created voter registration cards for the school, and every student registered to vote.
“We also decided that we would like to share with them the electoral process, because that’s very difficult, even for some adults, to understand,” Carter said.
On Monday, Nov. 4, every Lawndale student casted his or her vote during recess. Each of the 20 homerooms was allotted electoral votes, and the electoral votes of each homeroom went to the candidate that wins the popular vote in that homeroom. Each homeroom has about 27 votes and represents between one and four real-world states (except for the two California homerooms — they each get half of the state only).
In a school assembly in the gym on the morning of Tuesday, November 5th, a chosen representative from each homeroom casted their electoral votes, and the winning mascot was announced at the end of the assembly.
Champ the Golden Retriever is Lawndale Elementary School’s new — and first ever — mascot.
