Plan a unit on the U.S. Constitution. Decide on two or three of the most important things your students need to know and understand about the Constitution that you will focus on in the unit.
Collect any reading and supplemental materials that will enhance your students' understanding of the Constitution. The book "Shh! We're Writing the Constitution" written by Jean Fritz and illustrated by Tomie de Paola is a particularly good resource for late elementary school.
Prepare a game to use on the first day of the unit to demonstrate the importance of rules. It should be short, as your class will play it twice. After attempting to play the game without rules, you will try it again with the rules as a demonstration of how direction helps a group work together smoothly.
Use the game you prepared as an anticipatory set for the unit. First, play without the objectives or rules stated clearly. Monitor the class and allow the game to continue until students exhibit frustration at the lack of clarity. State the objectives and rules of the game clearly, making sure they understand and play the game again. Discuss the two outcomes as a class or in small groups. Write your findings about the importance of rules on the board or allow students to do so. Connect these observations to the reasons for the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.
Read your chosen Constitution literature with the class. Discuss the process that the United States went through to develop the Constitution. Question students on the kinds of rules and regulations that a classroom needs to be orderly and fair. Take the opportunity to divide the class into small groups for the discussion. Monitor the groups and encourage them to write their thoughts to share with the class.
Encourage students to write rules for the classroom. Compile the list and make it visible. Divide students into small groups again. In their groups, have them condense rules that are similar into positive statements. These positive statements should indicate an aspect of how the class should run. For example, the rules "don't run, don't push people and don't throw things" could be made positive by stating "Our class keeps each other safe."
Share the positive classroom standards as a class. Have students choose a few that they feel comprehensively demonstrate how they wish the classroom should run. Vote to ratify each classroom standard. Encourage respectful discussion if there are differences in opinion.
Write out the Classroom Constitution on the poster. Use a preamble modeled after the United States Constitution and follow it with the chosen classroom standards. Each student should sign at the bottom. If possible, use a copier to reduce the size of the constitution so that each student can have a copy of the original. Post the original copy in a prominent place in the classroom.