Get Ready for Constitution Day 2023

(You have to teach about the Constitution in September!)

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Happy 236th Anniversary to "We, the People"!

Constitution & Citizenship Day commemorates the day the US Constitution was signed in Philadelphia (September 17, 1787) and honors all who have become citizens. According to federal law, schools who receive any federal funds are required to hold an educational program about the United States Constitution on September 17 every year. However, when September 17 falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, Constitution Day shall be held during the preceding or following week.


(Nerdy sidebar: Want a bit of an academic take on the history of Constitution Day? Check out "What Constitution Day Means and Why It Matters" from Social Education.)


There is no mandated curriculum for Constitution Day---you get to design what works for you and your students. The resources below are intended to help schools and teachers plan these learning experiences about how our system of government works.

Click Here to Explore An Interactive Constitution

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Free K-12 Lesson Plans & Activities

These non-partisan, non-profit organizations offers K-12 lesson plans & activities organized by grade level.


The National Endowment for the Humanities

Center for Civic Education

National Constitution Center Resource Library (also, here is their calendar of events)

National Constitution Center Constitution Day Resources

The National Archives (they also developed an online activity using primary docs from the archive)

The National Archives News: Celebrating Constitution Day

"Bring the Constitution to life!" from DocsTeach

The United States Census Bureau

iCivics

Library of Congress’s Constitution Day Teacher Resources (primary sources, interactives for teachers, discussion questions, lesson plans, online collections, stories for kids)

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History's Constitution Day Resources (historical documents, videos, online exhibitions, and lesson plans)

Teaching Resources from Our Friends at Wayne RESA

Click here to access curated resources broken down by grade level.
Constitution Day Made Easy for Elementary!

Constitution Day Made Easy for Elementary!

Here are some additional ideas for the elementary classroom.
Constitution Day Made Easy for Elementary!
Constitution Day YouTube Playlist

Constitution Day YouTube Playlist

Warning...you can't get some of these songs out of your head.
Constitution Day YouTube Playlist

Scholastic Constitution Day Lesson Plans

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Attend to Issues of Justice

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Whose "More Perfect Union"?

Whose "More Perfect Union"?

Constitution Day offers an opportunity to not just celebrate the Constitution, but to help students to think critically and ask questions about how it came to be, whose interests it has served, and what is needed to secure a more perfect union.


This free Constitutional Convention role play activity from the Zinn Education Project helps to surface these questions.

Whose "More Perfect Union"?

Teach about the First Amendment & Suffrage

The Anti-Defamation League designed this lesson focused on the First Amendment and this one on the fight for the 19th Amendment--and how Black women were left behind.

Lesson: Voting & Voter Suppression (like literacy tests)

Check out this lesson (designed for middle school students) published in Social Education, a publication of the National Council for the Social Studies.


"Show students that while voting is a constitutional right, it is vulnerable to being manipulated away from certain segments of society through the passage of laws, and that this loss of voting rights leads to a loss of political power for those groups. Invite students to look critically at the history of voter suppression, and to keep a historical framework in mind when analyzing whether current voting laws in certain states have affected some classes of citizens more than others."

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Free Tech Tool: ThingLink

ThingLink is a free digital tool that allows you to turn any image into an interactive graphic (here is an article that explains 5 ways you could use ThingLink for teaching). Check out the one below that a teacher made for Constitution Day.

TED-Ed...they have lessons!

The video below is part of a TED-Ed about the making of the US Constitution. Click here for more details.


P.S. TED-Ed offers free lessons and original animations for all grades and subjects.

The Making of the American Constitution - Judy Walton

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Go Old School with Schoolhouse Rock

Schoolhouse Rock! The Preamble

Webinars and Live Programs

Civics for All of US from the National Archives


Student Programs from the National Archives


Kids Town Hall: Famous Figures and the First Amendment from the National Constitution Center


Constitution Day Live from the Bill of Rights Institute


Constitution Day Programs from the National Constitution Center

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Have a great idea or resource to share? Send it our way and we'll add it.

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