This week at States Exploration, I headed up a series of projects for US Constitution Week. I had a lot of fun coming up with the projects and doing them! I thought I would share my projects, so you can see what we did!
Click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can see them better!
The first project we did was learn The Preamble. The Preamble is the beginning of 
the US Constitution and sets up the purpose of why we have the Constitution. We were supposed to copy it down and memorize it. I learned the Preamble from the We The People song on Schoolhouse Rock. I copied the Preamble out on a piece of paper. See?
The second project we did was learn about The Three Branches. The first three articles of the US Constitution sets up the US government as a republic with three separate branches of government.
I made a chart for this project and we were supposed to fill it out with the three branches and what they were for.
The third project we did was learn the Vocabulary of the Constitution and Signers. There are a lot of big words in the Constitution and I didn’t know the exact meaning of them, so we looked them up and found out what they mean. Here is my list of words:
vested
1. Clothed; covered; closely encompassed.
2. a. Fixed; not in a state of contingency or suspension; as vested rights.
enumeration
1. An account of a number of things, in which mention is made of every particular article.
2. In rhetoric, a part of a peroration, in which the orator recapitulates the principal points or heads of the discourse or argument.
ratify
1. To confirm; to establish; to settle.
2. To approve and sanction; to make valid; as, to ratify an agreement or treaty.
bicameral
1. having two branches, chambers, or houses, as a legislative body.
impeachment
1. An accusation or charge brought against a public officer for maladministration in his office. In Great Britain, it is the privilege or right of the house of commons to impeach, and the right of the house of lords to try and determine impeachments. In the U. States, it is the right of the house of representatives to impeach, and of the senate to try and determine impeachments. In Great Britain, the house of peers, and in the U. States,the senate of the U.States, and the senates in the several states, are the high courts of impeachment.
2. The act of impeaching.
3. Censure; accusation; a calling in question the purity of motives or the rectitude of conduct, &c. This declaration is no impeachment of his motives or of his judgment.
4. The act of calling to account, as for waste.
5. The state of being liable to account, as for waste.
extradition
1. the surrender of an alleged fugitive from justice or criminal by one state, nation, or authority to another.
quorum
1. A bench of justices, or such a number of officers or members as is competent by law or constitution to transact business; as a quorum of the house of representatives. A constitutional quorum was not present.
2. A special commission of justices.
We were also supposed to list the signers of the US Constitution. There were 39 men who signed this document that could have ended their lives!
I had a hard time finding a list of them and searched and searched! Finally I got a list made up!
George Washington of Virginia
George Read of Delaware
Gunning Bedford, Jr. of Delaware
John Dickinson of Delaware
Richard Bassett of Delaware
Jacob Broom of Delaware
James McHenry of Maryland
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer of Maryland
Daniel Carrol of Maryland
John Blair of Virginia
James Madison, Jr of Virginia
William Blount of North Carolina
Richard Dobbs Spaight of North Carolina
Hugh Williamson of North Carolina
John Rutledge of South Carolina
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina
Charles Pinckney of South Carolina
Pierce Butler of South Carolina
William Few of Georgia
Abraham Baldwin of Georgia
John Langdon of New Hampshire
Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire
Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts
Rufus King of Massachusetts
William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut
Roger Sherman of Connecticut
Alexander Hamilton of New York
William Livingston of New Jersey
David Brearley of New Jersey
William Paterson of New Jersey
Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey
Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania
Thomas Mifflin of Pennsylvania
Robert Morris of Pennsylvania
George Clymer of Pennsylvania
Thomas Fitzsimons of Pennsylvania
Jared Ingersoll of Pennsylvania
James Wilson of Pennsylvania
Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania
William Jackson also signed the US Constitution as an attestion of the document’s signing.
How many of those names do you recognize? The ones I italicized are the ones I know.
The fourth and final project we did was go back and realize how important having a Constitution was and how important it is for our families to have one too!
Here is my constitution…
If you would like to do these projects, make sure to head to States Exploration to get directions and all the charts! If you do these projects, make sure to leave a comment, so we can come see yours!
I had a lot of fun doing these projects and I am sure you will too! It was great getting to take a closer look into the Constitution of the United States of America!
©AmandaDixon2009
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Tags: Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Connecticut, Constitution, Delaware, executive, family, George Washington, Georgia, government, history, James Madison, John Rutledge, judicial, legislative, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, projects, signers, South Carolina, The Preamble, The Three Branches, United States of America, US Constitution Week, Virginia, vocabulary, words
September 26th, 2008 at 12:48 am
you did a super job on the constitution week!
stumbling…
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September 26th, 2008 at 12:52 am
ahh gee thanks Jocelyn!
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September 26th, 2008 at 1:21 am
So, can you say the Preamble without singing it?
I am proud of you for making up this project! It was a great idea, and you did a great job!
I will need to have your brothers and sisters get theirs up too!
I love the charts you made up and the pictures of your projects you shared.
Love you dear girl!
[Reply]
September 26th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Miss Amanda, My mom has assigned me to complete your challenge this week and I will be adding it to my meme on Tuesday.
I hope you’ll join us!
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September 26th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Neat project. Great way to learn more about American history!!
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January 3rd, 2009 at 1:37 am
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