Day 3

Day 3
Content for Study

The Constitution and amendments
NCSS Theme
Power, Authority, and Governance
Rationale
Students need to be able to understand and interpret the document that governs our country as well as
how and why it has been changed throughout the span of its existence.
Unit Goals
Students will describe what the Constitution is, the amending process, and what some of the
amendments are that have been made already.
Pre-assessment
Students will use Quizlet live. Students are broken into teams where they must compete to answer
questions on quizlet.com about constitution and what freedoms it protects.
Post-assessment
Students will create a Bio-project related to a key founding father. Options are George Washington,
James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, George Mason, and Elbridge Gerry. Students
will sign up for their person the 1st day of the Unit. Students will read a biography of their person and do
the following tasks:
 Create a Bio-cube of their founding father
 Create a Bio-poem
 Create a Bottle person
In addition, students will choose two of the following to also include
 Create a timeline of important event that occurred in your person’s life time.
 Create a diary or Journal for your person with a minimum of 4 entries. Each entry should be at
least four paragraphs long.
 Create an obituary, birth certificate, and death certificate for your person.
On the last day, students will share their Bio-projects in groups. (The groups will be made so that no one
at a group should have the same person)
Learning Standards
SS.5.C.1.2: Define a constitution, and discuss its purposes.
SS.5.A.5.10: Examine the significance of the Constitution including its key political concepts, origins of
those concepts, and their role in American democracy.
SS.5.C.1.5: Describe how concerns about individual rights led to the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the
U.S. Constitution.
SS.5.C.3.4: Describe the amendment process as defined in Article V of the Constitution and give
examples.
SS.5.C.3.5: Identify the fundamental rights of all citizens as enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
LAFS.5.RI.3.9: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak
about the subject knowledgeably.
Objectives
Students will describe the amending process.
The students will recall what is protected under each amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Materials
Amazing Amendments Reproducible
http://www.scholastic.com/americanjustice/pdfs/Abota_AmazingAmendments.pdf
Bill of Rights Cootie Catcher https://constitutioncenter.org/media/files/Amedment_Cootie_Catchers.pdf
Constitution Translated for Kids by Cathy Travis (also in Spanish)

Procedures
Article V:
 In groups, students will revisit The Constitution Translated for Kids and reread Article V. They will
discuss what an amendment is and why this section of the constitution was created.
 Students will then read Amazing Amendments and as a group, answer the questions at the
bottom. The teacher will pull ESOL/ESE students to a separate group and work with them.
Students will use their notes from the day before and the teacher will scaffold the language
based on ESOL student’s language acquisition. Rather than reading the full Article V or Amazing
Amendments sheet, the teacher will give a short description of Article V for the student and
focus on teaching only the chart of the amending process. The teacher will ask leveled questions
for comprehension.
Bill of Rights Cootie Catcher
 Students will make the bill of rights cootie catchers (2 per person).
 On the description of the amendment, students will draw a small picture or symbol that can
help them remember what the amendment protects. The pictures will help ESE/ESOL students
connect the amendment number to what it protects as well.
 (Teacher demonstrate how to play) Students will pair up and play with the completed cootie
catchers. One student will choose a founder and give a fact about that founder. The other
student then spells the founder’s name as they move the cootie catcher open and closed.
 The first student then chooses a number displayed and the second students counts that many
by opening and closing the cootie catcher.
 The first student picks another visible number and must describe what that amendment
protects. The students reverse rolls and play another round.
Formal Assessment
The teacher will listen as students play with the cootie catchers to hear if students are matching the
amendments to their descriptions correctly.
The teacher will also look at the students Amazing Amendments worksheet and address any common
mistakes the next class.

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Day 3

Content for Study

Constitution Translated for Kids by Cathy Travis (also in Spanish)

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