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Separation of Powers Day 1: Branches of Government Craft

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Separation of Powers Day 1: Branches of Government Craft

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For a fun an interactive way to introduce the topic of the separation of powers, students will be creating a craft that allows them to visualize the elements of the separation of powers and how they are involved with the United States Government. The materials needed are listed in the link below.

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Your students will love creating this branches of government mobile! They can make it when studying branches of state or federal government.

Ms. Sneed's Class Builds Branches of Government Mobiles

Our favorite fourth grade teacher, Ms. Sneed, always loved studying the branches of government. Unfortunately, her students didn't. What could she do to make it fun? As she sat at her desk and brainstormed, a vision formed in her head. That's it! A mobile!

Since Ms. Sneed taught in Indiana, her school had a die cut pattern for that state. She ran down the hall and cut out some white shapes.

Hmm, what else? Ms. Sneed gathered a paper plate and some colored paper. After typing the branches, who was in each, and a few duties, she was ready to build a model.

Once the flurry of activity was over, Ms. Sneed looked at her work. Not bad!

Getting Ready

The next day, Ms. Sneed taught her kids about branches of Indiana government. In addition to instruction, she showed them two videos:

Giving Directions for Branches of Government Mobile

"Now," said Ms. Sneed, "we're going to build some mobiles." Excited chatter broke out in the class.

"Each of you will need to collect these materials from the table:

paper plate

12 paper clips

3 large shapes to display the names of the branches

3 medium-sized shapes for the positions (trapezoids)

6 small shapes for the duties (squares)

paper punch

string

"If you need help, ask me - or come up and look at my sample."

The students punched three equally spaced holes near the edge of the paper plate. In addition, they punched one hole at the top and one hole at the bottom of each large piece, one hole at the top and two holes at the bottom of each medium-sized piece, and one hole at the top of each small piece.

Now they cut and pasted the names of the branches, positions, and duties on the pieces.

Since tying was difficult for some students, Ms. Sneed asked them to attach the pieces with paper clips. This way, students could easily correct their errors too. They just slipped the piece off of the paper clip and rearranged.

Finally, they tied a piece of string to each hole in the paper plate and tied them together at the top.

When they were done, Ms. Sneed hung their mobiles around the room. "Hmm," she thought, "projects like this make me enjoy teaching even more."

Branches of Government Mobiles in Your Class

You can easily replicate this project in your class. For a United States government mobile, just grab this template. It's free in my Teachers pay Teachers store.

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How to Make a Branches of Government Mobile

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Your students will love creating this branches of government mobile! They can make it when studying branches of state or federal government. Our favorite fourth grade teacher, Ms. Sneed, always loved studying the branches of government. Unfortunately, her students didn't. What could she do to make it fun?

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Separation of Powers Day 2: Three Branches of Government Handout

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Separation of Powers Day 2: Three Branches of Government Handout

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For the second day of the separation of powers unit, the students will be given a handout and they will dive deeper into the subject as well as reviewing the three branches and their purposes. The students will be instructed to hold on to this handout until the end of the unit.

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The Three Level of Government: Scavenger Hunt 

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The Three Level of Government: Scavenger Hunt 

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This is a fun and interactive way for students to assess their learning while engaging in an activity that gets them up and moving. By having prior knowledge about the three branches of government, the students will have the clues they need to complete the scavenger hunt.

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Description

The Types of Government Scavenger Hunt can be used as an introduction or review activity. You can use the Types of Government activity as task cards, a scavenger hunt or both. Students will learn about Monarchy, Democracy, Dictatorship, Oligarchy, Theocracy, Anarchy, Socialism, Communism and Autocracy.

The Scavenger Hunt is designed so that students must visit/read each type of government Fact Cards! That means students have to read the small passage or skim for details multiple times! Students will use non-fiction social studies content to practice reading skills, improve fluency, reading comprehension and use context clues. Also included are 10 ideas for how to use task cards! The possibilities are endless for this cross-curriculum Types of Government activity!

This Types of Government activity can be used as task cards for partner activities, SCOOT activities, scavenger hunts, anticipatory sets, unit review, sub plans, stations, or independent work. How you choose to set it up in your classroom is up to you. There are so many possibilities that allow students to be out of their seats, moving around the room and learning!

*10 Types of Government Fact Cards to hang around the room. Each Fact Card contains a reading passage and picture.

*8 ELA Task Cards - Students use reading and comprehension skills (Common Core)

*4 Math Task Cards - Students complete basic addition and subtraction

*4 Timeline Task Cards - Questions pertaining to years

*2 Writing Task Cards - Open-ended, creative thinking prompts

*2 Drawing Task Cards - Quick draw to show comprehension

(20 task cards total)

* 2 Recording Sheets to choose from

*One with the questions typed directly on it, the other is blank to use with the task cards.

*The recording sheet is broken down into categories - ELA, Math, Timeline, Drawing and Writing.

*Teacher Answer Key

*4 Blank Task Cards for the teacher to use for additional questions. ( I use them for early finisher tasks)

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Types of Government Scavenger Hunt - Forms of Government - Think Tank Teacher

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The Types of Government Scavenger Hunt can be used as an introduction or review activity. You can use the Types of Government activity as task cards, a scavenger hunt or both. Students will learn about Monarchy, Democracy, Dictatorship, Oligarchy, Theocracy, Anarchy, Socialism, Communism and Autocracy.

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Checks and Balances Day 2: Brain Pop Game

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Checks and Balances Day 2: Brain Pop Game

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On the second day of learning about checks and balances, students will be instructed to complete a brain pop game in class. This game is focused on checks and balances and their purpose in the 3 branches of government.

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In Checks and Balances, students must drag vocabulary words relating to the three U.S. branches of government into the spaces where they fit best. Players will demonstrate their understanding of the different duties of the branches of government and how they balance each other.

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Checks and Balances Lesson Plans and Lesson Ideas | BrainPOP Educators

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In Checks and Balances, students must drag vocabulary words relating to the three U.S. branches of government into the spaces where they fit best. Players will demonstrate their understanding of the different duties of the branches of government and how they balance each other.

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The United States Government: Three Branches of Government Quiz

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The United States Government: Three Branches of Government Quiz

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This is the final activity in the unit and allows the students to assess their overall understanding of the unit by completing this online quiz of the three branches of government.

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Three Branches of Government - 3rd Grade - Quiz

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Free gamified quizzes on every subject that students play in class and at home. Pick an existing quiz or create your own for review, formative assessment, and more.

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Checks and Balances Day 1: CrashCourse Video

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Checks and Balances Day 1: CrashCourse Video

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Through watching this video, students will have a better understanding of checks and balances and how they play a role in the three branches of government. This is broken down into two days to introduce the topic before working with it.

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Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances: Crash Course Government and Politics #3

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On this day, students will create a poster in groups of 4-5. The students will take their knowledge from the previous days about the three branches to construct this poster.

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Elected by the People: Three Government Branches Song

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Elected by the People: Three Government Branches Song

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On this day, the students will learn a song about the three branches of government before diving into the ways in which the people within these branches are selected. This is a great song to help remind the students of each branch and it’s purpose.

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The President and Vice President: Branches of Government Game

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The President and Vice President: Branches of Government Game

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After reviewing the purpose of the president and the vice president in the executive branch, the students will take this brain pop quiz to determine their knowledge about these people within the 3 branches of government, as well as their knowledge about the US government up until this point in the unit.

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Branches of Government Game - GameUp - BrainPOP.

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In this free online social studies game, players sort powers of the U.S. government into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

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Supreme Justices and the Court: Schoolhouse Rock Video

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Supreme Justices and the Court: Schoolhouse Rock Video

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This video is a fun and interactive way to introduce the topic of the roles of the Supreme court justices and the role of these 9 people in the three branches of government. After watching this video, the students will create their own songs for these members of the government.

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Three Branches of Government School House Rock

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This video focuses solely on the executive branch and points out how this branch makes the laws and involves the city council and senators.

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What Is the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government? | History

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This video focuses solely on the legislative branch and describes how this branch enforces the laws. This branch is made up of the President, Governor, and the Mayor.

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What Is the Legislative Branch of the U.S. Government? | History

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This video focuses solely on the judicial branch and explains the involvement of the judges and how they decide if laws are fair and equitable.

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What Is the Judicial Branch of the U.S. Government? | History

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This video is great to show students towards the end of the unit to go into more detail about how the power within the government is divided and where each branch takes care of the certain responsibilities they hold.

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How is power divided in the United States government? - Belinda Stutzman

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The 3 Branches of Government: Introductory Video

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The 3 Branches of Government: Introductory Video

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Students will watch this video which introduces the three branches of government and allows the students to begin thinking about how they are different from one another.

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3 Branches of Government | Kids Educational Video | Kids Academy