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Lesson 3: Branches of Government
Young historians climb through the three branches of the US government in the third lesson of this five-part series. While reading the first three Articles of the Constitution in small groups, children write facts on paper leaves that...
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Lesson 2: The Constitution: Our Guiding Document
Explore the structure and content of the US Constitution in the second lesson of this five-part social studies series. A collection of activities, games, and videos complement a class reading of a document summarizing the US...
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Lesson 1: The Importance of Rules in Our Country and in Our Classroom
Explore the importance of rules in a community with the engaging first lesson of this series on the US government. To begin, children play a paper clip game that requires them to make up their own rules as they go, after which the...
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Getting Out the Vote: An Election Day Classroom Experiment
Students explore through a hands-on experiment why voting is important. They examine the potential impact of deciding not to vote. They they have the opportunity to vote in a mock presidential election if they choose to.
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How Laws Are Made
Learners create a graphic organizer to illustrate the steps elected representatives must take to make a new law. Included: Student work sheet and role-play ideas. Students use their graphic organizers to write a paragraph briefly...
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Underground Railroad/Quilts
Students explore the Underground Railroad communication system. In this cross curriculum fine arts and United States history Civil War lesson, students view several websites that feature quilts constructed by slaves during the...
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Picture Books and the Bill of Rights
Students identify the basic freedoms of citizens in the United States. For this Bill of Rights lesson, students act out scenarios about the Bill of Rights. Students create a picture book describing the rights they've acted out.
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Water Uses and Children's Lives in East Africa
Students explore water usage around the world. In this "water" social studies lesson, students brainstorm ways in which water is used. Students visit the Water in Africa website to view pictures of water usage in Africa. Students...
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Creating a Classroom Constitution
Youngsters identify and interpret the importance of having rules in order to maintain order at home, at school, in their community, and in the United States. They create a working Classroom Constitution that governs the classroom and...
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Four Corners Debate
Should the student population wear uniforms to school? Pupils express whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with a controversial statement, moving to a designated corner of the room to indicate their stance....
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May the Best Character Win
Running an election campaign takes money. Class groups must effectively budget money in order to design and purchase sufficient advertising aimed at procuring classmates' votes. After completing an online tutorial, they also write and...
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Vocabulary Review: Government Terms
As your English language pupils learn about the government and vocabulary words commonly used when talking about the government, present them with this worksheet. There are eight multiple choice questions, and each vocabulary word is...
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All About Our Town
Pupils explore brochure writing. They work in groups to brainstorm and categorize important places in their community. In addition, they gather information from the Internet, take pictures using a digital camera, and create a community...
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A Landmark Lesson: The United States Capitol Building
Students study the events in American history that affected the US Capitol Building. They name activities that happen in and around the Capitol by looking at primary source documents that are available online.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Lesson 2: What Has Happened in the White House?
Working in small groups, or individually, learners are given images of events that took place at the White House. They study the image and research that time in history to better understand how the White House has been affected by...
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How Do Artists Effectively Relate Historic Events?
Students explore African American migration. In this black culture and history lesson plan, students use a map to identify northern and southern states in which African Americans lived in the 1900s. Students observe and describe objects...
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Breaking the Chains, Rising Out of Circumstances
Discuss the history of slavery by analyzing historic photography depicting slavery. Learners write fictional stories based on these photographs. This is a creative and motivating way to launch a discussion of these topics.
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Four Famous Faces
Each one of our quarters is embellished with a famous face or image representing the state it came from. This lesson uses South Dakota's state quarter to get kids thinking about monetary value, what the president of the United States...
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If I Were President
Children discuss voting and the presidency. They make a picture of what they would do as president and dictate a caption. The class then votes on the snack they would like to eat that day. This presents many wonderful learning...
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Your Vote Counts!
Students build an election campaign around their favorite TV characters. They acquire knowledge about candidates, slogans, qualifications, and voting using the activities in this instructional activity. Thus, they simulate the election...
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Texas Kid Writes Book About Presidents
Arranged into small groups, learners read a paragraph of the news story "Texas Kid Writes Book About Presidents." As one reads, others mark the text (underlining important information and writing notes in the margin of the story). After...
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Washington DC
After listening to the story, Arthur Meets the President, 2nd graders create travel posters about Washington DC A discussion about what makes a good travel poster takes place, then pupils are given travel brochures and art supplies so...
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Renewable Energy Sentences
Students construct sentences using nouns and verbs from a "renewable energy" word bank. In this cross curriculum ecology and sentence structure grammar and mechanics lesson, students listen to the book Our Earth: Clean Energy by Peggy...
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Water in Africa
Students discover the horrible situation of water shortages that many people face by completing Peace Corps activities. In this global health lesson, students analyze and discuss photographs of people in Africa struggling to find water....