Heritage Research Project

10/4 - 10/16

Today students will receive information that will describe their research project that they will begin on Monday. The research will be about their family heritage as we begin to study the immigration into the United States by a variety of ethnic groups. Students should be interviewing family members about their family tree and the origin and meaning of a family name. So that means another FAMILY HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT!!! Students were excited the last time we had a family homework assignment. Use this opportunity to discuss with your child about their family heritage and maybe everyone will learn something unique. You never know there may be a future historian in the making!! :)

As always there will be a link to the Heritage Research Packet as well as the power point template so students can download and work on it at home if they desire or need to. I hope everyone has fun with this assignment and learns some interesting facts.

Final two days of our project are beginning today. Students should be working on their power points and getting ready for their presentations.

Ch. 16 Government Test

Our Chapter 16 Government test will be Friday, September 27th. Study guide can be found by clicking on the government link a the top of the page.  The study guide questions are below. Students should have this complete by Thursday.

1.  What branch of government has 100 senators and 435 representatives? ____________________________

2. What branch of government has the President?  _____________________________________

3. What branch of government has enforces the nation’s law?  _______________________________

4. What branch of government has makes the laws for the nation?  _________________________________

5. What branch of government is made up of two house of Congress? _______________________________

6. What branch of government can declare a law unconstitutional? ______________________________

7. What branch of government has can veto a bill passed by Congress? _______________________________

8. What branch of government has officials that are not elected? ____________________________________

9. What branch of government has officials that are elected?  ___________________ __________________

10. What is the title give for the head of the state government?  _______________________________

11. What is the title give for the head local government?  __________________________

In the space provided, write a brief definition of the terms below:

12. Republic: ______________________________________________________________________

13. Bill of Rights____________________________________________________________________

14. Checks and balances _______________________________________________________________

15. Why do people register to vote? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16. How old do you have to be to vote? ______________

17. How old do you have to be to run for President? _________________

18. Who is President of the United States of America? (spell correctly) ___________________________

Bill of Rights Matching

___ 19.  First Amendment                                                           a. It guarantees freedom of press, religion, assembly, speech, and petition.

___ 20.  Second Amendment                                                     b.  It protects the rights of the accused.

___ 21.  Third Amendment                                                          c.  The government cannot make people house soldiers in peacetime.

___ 22.  Fourth Amendment                                                      d.  It protects people against unfair searches.

___ 23. Fifth Amendment                                                            f.  It protects people’s rights to have weapons

Checks & Balances

Use Complete Sentences!!!!

24. The President checks Congress by

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

25. Congress checks the President by

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Published essays are due between Wednesday, September 25th and Friday, September 27th.

9/18-9/25/13

Today Dr. Porkchop made us work like mad. We had to narrow our original five choice down to three and then ONE!!

Students then had to create an outline showing their evidence for why they picked this one particular amendment.

Step 4:  Dr. Porkchop has now decided to allow Americans to retain only ONE fundamental right. You must use all of your knowledge to convince him to keep your top choice. You will need to write a five paragraph essay in which you argue for your top right. Each body paragraph will contain one piece of evidence to support your choice. Your conclusion should acknowledge that there were other amendments you could have chosen. What you write below will help you start your rough draft!!

Right	Amendment #
1.

Introduction: (Write your HOOK sentence! Remember you want to convince Dr. Porkchop to let us keep this one right).

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence #1 – used in body paragraph #1   ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence #2 – used in body paragraph #2  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Evidence #3 – used in body paragraph #3  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Conclusion: (what other amendments could have been chosen?)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On Friday students will begin their rough drafts of their five paragraph essay.

What Rights Do I Value Most?

9/18-9/25/13

For the next week we will analyzing the Bill of Rights to determine which right students value most. Today is the first stage where we brainstorm and narrow down the ten right to five.

Here is the scenario:

Which Rights Do I Value Most?

            The United States has been invaded by hostile forces from a terrorist organization, led by the evil Dr. Porkchop! He has overthrown the federal government. Being a benevolent dictator, Dr. Porkchop is allowing American citizens to retain five of the fundamental liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. It is up to you to determine which five of those rights will be retained. Select five of that are the most important to you and list them below, along with their corresponding amendment numbers. Beneath the chart, provide evidence (Why this right should be kept, could be examples or specific reasons) to support your choices. Remember if there is no clear evidence, Dr. Porkchop will not allow us to keep any rights.

Step 1: Choose five fundamental rights from the Bill of Rights.

Right	Amendment #
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Evidence: ­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The worksheet is in the government link section.  There is a family assignment that is due tomorrow.  Be sure to help them out!!  Here is the assignment:

STEP 2: Homework!!  Ask an adult (other than your Social Studies teacher) which five amendments they would keep and why!  Record their answers below. You may need to review what the amendments are with them. Record their answers below. You may ask more than one adult, if needed.

Name of Adult(s) _________________________________________________________

Right	Amendment #
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Evidence:    ­­­­­­­___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Constitution Day

9/17/13

Today is Constitution Day!!!!

We will be examining what life would be like without some of the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

In this game students will use the interactive website to find out what happens if we didn't have certain rights. To view this at home, simply go to the link below.  

http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/student-resources/play-games/life-without-the-bill-of-rights/

Students will be filling out the charts seen below. As always, these worksheets can be found in the government link section at the top of the blog.

Close Reading of Jean Fritz's book Shh! We are Writing the Constitution

9/16/13

Today students are doing a close reading activity over Jean Fritz's book, Shh! We are Writing the Constitution. Working in pairs students were given a passage pertaining to one of five areas:


1: The plan for government

2: Compromise

3: A Work in Progress

4: Checks and Balances

5: Ratification

Tomorrow is Constitution Day and we will looking at what would happen without certain rights.

Preamble to the Constitution

9/12/13

Today we analyzed the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States. In the Government Links section you can find a pdf version of the annotation done during 3rd period today (all of the classes were the same). Below is what it looks like:

Tomorrow we will be annotating the 1st Amendment. All of this is preparing students for Constitution week, which starts on Monday.  Be looking for a family assignment next Wednesday!!!