Teaching the Constitution and Bill of Rights

Hello teachers! We are just finishing up one of my favorite units to teach out of all of my classes! I love teaching students about how our government works here in America. I believe it is so important to society that our future voters are well-informed and know what the Constitution says. Last year, I discovered a really great product on Teacher's Pay Teachers for teaching students the branches of government. In this project, students make a really cool flip-flap book about the branches of government! It even comes with a little booklet that has information about the branches in very simple language and that aligns perfectly with the questions asked in the flip-flap book. The bonus to it is that it looks amazing up on a bulletin board! Check mine out!

The yellow stickies and weird black line are covering the student's names. I just put them on for this picture. :)

I purchased this project from Simply Skilled in Second on Teacher's Pay Teachers. You can get it here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Branches-of-Government-1189930 . It is well worth the price, even if printing it is a little bit complicated (some pages need to be printed on legal pages). One example of checks and balances from this booklet is how a bill becomes a law, so of course, I had to show the classic Schoolhouse Rock video, "I'm Just a Bill." (Aren't those the best videos??)

After completing the flip-flap book, we played a game entitled, "Branches of Power" to test our knowledge at www.icivics.org. I love this website!!!! I use lessons and games from it numerous times throughout the year to teach U.S. history. I only wish there were a website like it for world history activities.

Next, we study the Bill of Rights. I use a Bill of Rights lesson from www.icivics.org. In the picture above, high and in the center, is one of the activities we do from that lesson. Students have to match a simplified version of each amendment with its number. There are a few other fun activities in the lesson and I modify them for my class as needed (we do parts in groups, parts individually, and parts as a whole class). We then play another game at www.icivics.org. This one is called, "Do I have a Right?" It's similar to Diner Dash, except you are running a law firm and matching clients and their problems to a lawyer who specializes in a corresponding amendment. This game truly allows students to put their knowledge into action! The last activity we did with the Bill of Rights was a discussion activity that I created after reading about "chat stations" from Cult of Pedagogy. You can read more about them at http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/chat-stations/. The discussion questions I created for this activity are totally free on Teacher's Pay Teachers!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bill-of-Rights-Discussion-Activity-2338448

I was incredibly impressed by the answers I got to these questions. Most were well-thought-out with good evidence for their answers. I really felt like the students were able to apply the principles in the Bill of Rights to their own lives through this activity. 

I hope some of these activities give you inspiration for teaching about our amazing Constitution and Bill of Rights! Please comment if you have any questions. :)