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)
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.
Students will study the works of these key figures to understand their conflicting ideas regarding the framework of the new government.
Students will learn how to understand, summarize, and analyze primary sources through a close reading of the US Constitution.
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.
Read along with Hamilton cast member Vincent Jamal Hooper as he tells the story of the enslaved people who built the White House.
Read along with Meecah as she tells the story of Mumbet, an enslaved woman from Massachusetts who successfully sued for her freedom.’
Video 03 will provide your students with a general introduction to the US Constitution.
Course Features
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.
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.
Lecture by Denver Brunsman, Associate Professor of History, The George Washington University
Resources referenced in the lecture
Lecture by Denver Brunsman, Associate Professor of History, The George Washington University
Resources referenced in the lecture
Lecture by Lindsay Chervinsky, Executive Director, George Washington Presidential Library, Mount Vernon
Resources referenced in the lecture
George Washington to the House of Representatives, March 30, 1796 (assertion of executive privilege)
