Working in a group, the entire fifth grade class contributes to a biographical project on the founding fathers and signers of the Constitution. For this project, the fifty-five founding fathers are evenly divided among the students. Students then research each of their assigned founding fathers, gathering information on their role in the Constitutional Congress and other interesting facts about their public life. In addition to information, images should also be found of each man. Once the students have performed their research, each student presents his founding father to the rest of the class before the teacher posts the information on a webpage created especially for the project.
Added to the original Constitution in 1791, the Bill of Rights is a list of ten rights granted to American citizens that cannot be violated by the government. Fifth-graders can experience the difficulties of narrowing down the definition of inalienable rights for an entire citizenry through a reenactment of the process. Divided into small groups of three or four, students discuss what they believe should be included in the bill of rights. After agreeing on a list of ten, each group prepares a presentation to introduce their “Bill of Rights” to the class. After the presentations, teachers can lead a class discussion in the differences between the various proposals, including the difficulties of coming to a general consensus among the group and class members.
An important component of the Constitution was the founding of the three branches of government: the Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary branches. Like the branches of a tree, the branches of government are connected to a main trunk, the American people, and bound by the same roots. Using the tree metaphor, fifth-graders can create individual tree-inspired models of the branches of government. From the trunk grow the three branches of government. Students create additional branches and small offshoots for the Legislative branch which is divided into the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The Founding Fathers found inspiration for the construction of their new government and the Articles of the Constitution in the governing systems of cultures such as the Iroquois Indians. The Iroquois Confederacy was a collaboration of eastern tribes including the Iroquois, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora cultures. The tribes each managed their own internal affairs, much like state governments, but acted as one in the face of non-Confederacy tribes and foreign affairs. Fifth-graders can learn more about other inspirational sources for the formation of the Constitution through a project examining the beliefs of Founding Fathers as well as larger global ideas concerning democracy. Areas of study can include Ancient Greece or a deeper examination of the Iroquois Confederacy.