Hoping For a Creative and Fun Learning Experience for my Kids

I was searching for teaching materials for my kids when a good friend introduced me to TeachersPayTeachers.com. She told me that she gets great ideas and materials on this site for a low cost. I was curious and started exploring the website that she referred. Here’s what I learned.

What is TeachersPayTeachers.com all about?

I found out that TeachersPayTeachers.com is an online market website where educators trade their lessons plans and teaching materials to their fellow educators. The website’s vision is to empower educators to share original educational materials and make teaching an even more rewarding experience. A product from this site includes Teacher-Created Lesson Plans, Activities, Exams, PowerPoint Presentations, Worksheets and other similar curricular formats. Their wide-range of teaching materials was arranged accordingly from subjects, specializations, to the type of teaching material desired and down to grade levels. This systematically arranged style of the materials allows you no hassle in finding the right products that you want.

How can I find the right teaching product?

As mentioned earlier, this online market website arranged their variety of products according to subject, specializations, type of teaching material and grade levels which makes it easier in browsing the right teaching material for you. You can seek for a teaching material by subject on the Subject section where you can find, English Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies–History, Arts & Music, Foreign Language and Specialty. You can seek into a more specialized materials by browsing  through the Specialty category that sort subjects ranging from Computer Science-Technology, Special Education, Career and Technical Education, Health, Critical Thinking, Family Consumer Sciences and a whole lot more specialties. This website also offers you the teaching material you needed by exploring through the Type category section.

Adding fun to a dull Social Studies-History Lesson.

TeachersPayTeachers.com offers a whole new range of teaching materials that improves the teaching and learning experience of both the teacher and the students. A lecture and activity teaching product for a social studies for kids or History class for the Constitutional lesson is available from the said website through this link which is made creatively for parents like me. This product material consists of lecture material that teaches the background study of the lesson. Activity for students includes writing their own constitution, their own declaration of independence and their bill of rights. This writing activity enhances their creativity and thinking skills and at the same time gaining familiarity of the mechanics about constitutional writing and the like.

TeachersPayTeachers.com is not an ordinary market website; it helps educators and parents in building a creative and fun experience without jeopardizing the teaching-learning experience. Lesson plans and teaching materials don’t come in a boring practice anymore with the help of this online market website teaching and learning can be FUN and CREATIVE at the same time.

Teaching Constitution For Kids

As I mentioned in my previous post I will focus on activities to implement the steps I mentioned in teaching the constitution for kids. I will concentrate on the first step for this post.

“Get a copy of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. See if you can read the signatures of the 39 delegates that signed it.”

The best way to implement this step is through the use of stories. Kid’s are very imaginative, visually oriented and have a small retaining ability for details. Due to these facts, stories offer a creative way of bringing out the importance of certain laws, expressing the history of how a law came about or simply showing circumstances where the laws could be applied. A good example would be stories that serve to show how the declaration of independence came about. Kids must be made aware of the oppression that the Americans went through under the colonialism of England. Through these stories they begin to understand why the declaration of independence needed to be written down and implemented.

Another way is through the use of movies or clips. As stated previously, children remember visuals more easily than things they read. The bill of rights is a part of the constitution that can easily be weaved into a series of short span movies to explain why each bill is important. The children will get to see how easily their freedom can be violated and exactly how the bill of rights can protect them. They are able to see that the bill of rights removes supreme power from the government which then means they have some form of power in the running of the country and ultimately their personal lives.

Also the constitution can be taught in a class setting through subjects such as social studies. Using such a method would mean the kids would have to study the constitution at one point in their lives whether they like it or not. Also when put in the curriculum it will be in terms and formats suitable for young minds hence easily understandable.

Lastly, the constitution can be taught to children using plays, drawings, and other forms of visual arts. These carry some weight for the children as they are involved in the process of acting the plays out. As such they get to memorize some bits of the constitution for kids their own age and for themselves. As they ask their directors questions of why and how, they get a deeper understanding of pertinent issues.

Constitution for Kids and the Star Spangled Banner

Below is a list of activities we wrote about, and sent around for publication on other websites and blogs. I would also add one more to the list, in order to help make accessible the constitution for kids that don’t live in the us – sing the National Anthem with them. I started doing this with my girls. Or rather I should say, I sing songs to my kids every night before bed. I have now added the Star Spangled Banner to the play list. I act like I’m at a sporting event, waiving my arms to the music. Don’t forget the cheer of the crowd at the end. We have a great time, especially when my voice cracks at the high notes.

Anyway, I’ll be looking for specific activities to implement the steps below with my kids and sharing those ideas here on the Constitution for Kids blog. I’d love to hear about your ideas.

1. Get a copy of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. See if you can read the signatures of the 39 delegates that signed it.
2. Select a delegate to learn more about. The goal here is to gain some knowledge about the political forces and knowledge of the founding fathers. Explore the intrigue of the fact that the Declaration of the Independence was written behind closed doors, in secret.
3. Explore the beginnings by learning about the buildup of the association, gaining independence from the British, and the complete principles of individual freedom.
4. Discuss the separation of powers, as directed by the constitution, among the Congress, Supreme Court, and the President. Select a recent example to examine how the different branches of the government functions as a check and balance to the others.
5. Learn how the constitution divides power between the state governments and the federal government.
6. Learn how the Founding Fathers prescribed how amendments can be added to the Constitution. Explore how the Bill of Rights was added in 1791.

NYTimes sidebar about the status of the US constitution in the world today

NYTimes sidebar about the status of the US constitution in the world today

I read the following from the first lines of a NYTimes article this morning (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/we-the-people-loses-appeal-with-people-around-the-world.html?_r=1&ref=us)”Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. And it is the oldest written national constitution still in force anywhere in the world. But its influence is waning. In 1987, on the Constitution’s bicentennial, Time magazine calculated that “of the 170 countries that exist today, more than 160 have written charters modeled directly or indirectly on the U.S. version.”

I must admit, this made me proud. I’ve always known that many countries modeled parts of their constitutions on the US. But I was surprised by the number the article stated. OK, that was 1987 – fast forward to 2012 and apparently not as many countries continue to use the US constitution as a model. The article sights many reasons – it is too difficult to amend, it does not guarantee many rights, and perhaps the most intriguing reason – there are more appealing models. For instance the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I don’t want to start a discussion on the reasons why, or even if the reasons are valid. I am sure others will take on those discussions. I want to emphasize that the US constitution was used as a model for many other thriving republics. Perhaps those countries have taken our great legacy and improved upon it? At any rate, it made me think of adding this to my lesson plan for teaching my kids about the Constitution. The fact that it is the oldest written national constitution still in force anywhere in the world, and that it influenced the world.

The article reminded me of a quote I’ve read, attributed to Benjamin Franklin after the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was asked what form of government we would have, a republic or a monarchy. His reply – “a republic, if you can keep it.” I thought of it because the only way to keep it is to ensure those we pass it on to will appreciate and understand why it is so important. They also need to be educated about its significance, because they will be tasked to keep it relevant, or risk losing it.

Finally, the NYTimes article quoted Antonin Scalia speaking to the Senate Judiciary in October 2011 “Every banana republic in the world has a bill of rights. The bill of rights of the former evil empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was much better than ours…We guarantee freedom of speech and of the press.   Big deal.   They guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, of street demonstrations and protests, and anyone who is caught trying to suppress criticism of the government will be called to account. Whoa, that is wonderful stuff! Of course, it’s just words on paper, what our framers would have called a ‘parchment guarantee.’”   In other words, it’s not the tools but how you use them that counts.   Teach your children how special ours is.

What is econstitutionforkids?

Hi, I’m Mike.  I’m an American, living in Germany.  I am married to a beautiful German lady and we have two terrific kids.  I will likely never live in the US again.  Since my children attend German schools, they will never learn about the US Constitution, Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of Independence.  Their education on these important documents and their heritage falls to me.   On this site, I will explore methods, products, and ideas how expatriate Americans can teach their kids about these great documents.  This site is not only for expats, anyone who wants to make available the Constution for kids I hope you will follow along.

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