Clio has taught education courses at the college level and has a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction.
Are you interested in helping your students learn more about how they can be active participants in their society? The first step is to make sure they understand how the government works. When children understand that the government is organized into three different branches, they can make sense of how laws and important decisions are made. They will also understand some of the ideas that go into the foundations of the country. One great way to teach students about the three branches of government is to have them play games. When students learn about government through games, they not only have fun but also experience learning as something enjoyable. The games in this lesson will teach your students about the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
One interesting aspect of the executive branch of government is how the president has a lot of powers, but cannot make unilateral decisions about most things. Create sets of index cards to play this game. Half of the cards should have things presidents can do, like veto bills or declare war. Half should have things that presidents cannot do, like turn bills into laws or pass a budget. Break your students into partnerships, and ask them to sort their cards into piles of things presidents can and cannot do. See which group can complete the sort the quickest!
After students have learned about some of our most well-known past presidents, play a 'Guess Who' game about the executive branch. First, have each student write down actions taken by three different presidents. Then, have students take turns reading one of their descriptions. For instance, a student might say, 'He signed the Emancipation Proclamation. He lived in a log cabin before he became president.' Other students have to guess, and the first one who names Abraham Lincoln gets to do the next description.
Divide your students up into small groups, and give each group a labeled map of the United States. Explain to them that there are 435 members of the House of Representatives and that the number of representatives each state has depends on its population. Ask each group to try to guess how many representatives each state has, filling out their maps with numbers. Also, have groups pick a name for themselves. Bring groups together and list each group name on the board. As you go over the population and number of representatives for each state, give the group who was closest a point. The group who has the most points at the end wins the game.
Ask your students to work in groups to create and perform skits that show how the legislative branch of government is responsible for proposing bills and then working them through into laws. Then, have a legislative branch act-off. Each group gets to perform their skit, and the class gets to vote as to which skit is best and most accurately represents the process.
Give your students Bingo cards that are covered in the names of landmark Supreme Court cases, such as Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education, etc. Then, read out descriptions of what the cases were about and what the Supreme Court held. For instance, you might say, 'With this court case, the Supreme Court found that the segregation of schools was unconstitutional. Students who have the corresponding case on their card can cover it up, and the first student to accurately cover five spaces in a row is the winner.
This game really deals with all three of the branches at once and helps students learn about checks and balances. Break your class into three groups, with each group representing one of the branches. Then, call out things that one of the branches of government might do, like 'declare a law unconstitutional,' 'sign a bill into law,' or 'ratify a cabinet appointment.' Students should confer within their groups, and the group that feels they are responsible for that action should step forward. If they are correct, the other groups should contribute what they can do within their branch to keep that particular power in check.
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U.S. Government: Lesson Plans & Resources5 chapters | 168 lessons
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