Campaign Buttons

As part of our lesson on the Presidency we explored different Presidential Campaign slogans over time. We first thought about what they might mean, then we learned about what was going on in that time period and revised our thoughts. Finally, we had a class discussion about what the slogan was really trying to say. Some of our campaign slogans that we looked at were:

"Keep Cool with Coolidge" (Calvin Coolidge, 1924)
"A Chicken In Every Pot and a Car in Every Garage" (Herbert Hoover, 1928)
"All the Way with LBJ" (Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964)
"Not Just Peanuts" (Jimmy Carter, 1976)
"America Needs a Change" (Walter Mondale, 1984)
"Yes, We Can!" (Barack Obama, 2008)

After we discussed what makes an effective campaign slogan, students were charged with creating their own campaign slogan as if they were running for president in 2009. Once they came up with a slogan, they designed their own campaign button. Students volunteered to stay after school to make buttons from the completed student homework.