US Constitution | Elementary Curriculum

Elementary Curriculum: US Constitution

Find lesson plans, student activity sheets, interactive resources, classroom videos, and free professional development resources to expand your knowledge of the US Constitution.

 

Image: Junius Brutus Stearns, Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention, 1856. (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

Junius Brutus Stearns, Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention, 1856. (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)

Featured Lesson Plan

The US Constitution: The Preamble and the Bill of Rights

Grade Level: 3-5
Recommended Time for Completion: Four 45–minute class periods

Over the course of four lessons the students will read and analyze the Preamble to the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. To demonstrate their understanding of the documents, the students will answer critical thinking questions, summarize the meaning of the text, and restate it in their own words. They will also create an original drawing of a selected amendment that accurately conveys the significance of the amendment. As an optional summary activity, the students may write a brief persuasive essay.

Lesson Plan  Student Activities 

Additional Lesson Plans

Interactive Map: Joining the nation under the US Constitution, 1787–1959

Classroom Videos

The Hamilton Cast Read Along videos feature cast members of the musical Hamilton reading award-winning children’s books that explore complex topics in American history. These videos can be integrated into your classroom to initiate student conversation.

Becoming the United States: Colonial America to Reconstruction (based on a traveling exhibition of the same name) is a collection of short narrated videos that will give your students an overview of key events and figures related to American history.

Brick by Brick

by Charles R. Smith, Jr., and Floyd Cooper

Read along with Hamilton cast member Vincent Jamal Hooper as he tells the story of the enslaved people who built the White House.

  • Hamilton Cast Read Along

Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence

by Gretchen Woelfle and Alix Delinois

Read along with Meecah as she tells the story of Mumbet, an enslaved woman from Massachusetts who successfully sued for her freedom.’

  • Hamilton Cast Read Along

The United States Constitution

Video 03 will provide your students with a general introduction to the US Constitution.

  • Becoming the United States

 

Free Professional Development Course

History Essentials: Foundations of American Government

Course Features

  • 12 lectures
  • 12 quizzes
  • Suggested readings
  • Certificate for 15 PD credits

Led by Denver Brunsman, Associate Professor of History, The George Washington University

This course examines the “why” and the “how” of American government through an in-depth discussion of its history and workings.

Register for Free Course

NEH Summer Institute Lectures

The Making of America: Colonial Era to Reconstruction led by Denver Brunsman

In these lectures, geared toward elementary and middle school teachers, scholars focus on the people, ideas, and events that made America into a cultural, social, and political reality. 

"The Jeffersonian Revolution"