Constitution and Branches of Government 2

Parents: *This week's test will be on Thursday.* The students have a science program on Wednesday. This week's test will cover a lot of information. The students should have 4 different study guides to review; The Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Preamble to the Constitution, and the Branches/Levels of Government.

Notes for this week's quiz:

Preamble to the Constitution
"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

What is the Constitution? The plan for our nation's government.
What does it do for us? The Constitution protects our rights as citizens.

Government

How is our government set up? into three branches; Executive, Legislative, and Judicial
Why do we have a separation of powers? so no one branch has more power than the others
What is a system of checks and balances? Each branch of the government has limits on their power; they all have power over one another in some way.

Study your chart of National, State, and Local Governments.

You can review the Articles of Confederation notes below.

Constitution and Branches of Government

Parents: We will not test this Wednesday. We are learning about the Constitution and the branches of government. Next week's test will cover a lot of information. I have asked the students to review the notes they have every night. We will be building on these notes all week. The students will take a geography quiz on Friday to review direction skills.

Students:
Quick game on directions
Continue to study your states! You can learn more about each state here. Click on an individual state to learn more about it.

The Articles of Confederation

Notes for this week's quiz:

What were the Articles of Confederation? the colonists first attempt to form a national government
What is a national government? a government for the whole nation (country)
What is a republic form of government? a government where citizens can elect their officials
How many states had to agree in order for a law to pass? 9 of the 13
How many representatives was each state given? 7
What does ratify mean? approve
Why did the citizens fear a national government? they didn't want to be ruled by a king again
What is a delegate? a representative
What was the Constitutional Convention? a group of delegates who were elected to re-write the Articles of Confederation

Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation
Representatives did not know when and where to meet.
Congress could not make states pay taxes.
The Articles of Confederation gave too much power to the states and not enough power to the federal (national) government.

Geography

*This week's quiz will be on Friday*

Parents: This week's quiz will be a mixed review of geography skills that we have covered throughout the year. We are beginning a new unit on government. We are learning about the Articles of Confederation this week and will quiz over it next Wednesday. We will continue to test on Wednesdays.
*The students took an assessment last week over everything we have learned this year. This paper is coming home in Wednesday folders.*

Students: Here is the link to the map game. Practice!!! You can practice naming the Great Lakes on this site also.