So, You Want to be President? Program Overview (Pre-lesson plan begins on p. 5)

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1 So, You Want to be President? Program Overview (Pre-lesson plan begins on p. 5) Grade Levels: 4-6 Summary Many children are intrigued by the idea of being president, yet know little about the duties and limitations described in Article 2 of the United States Constitution. Through this Constitution-based program, students will explore and role-play the various roles and responsibilities of the president, such as commander in chief and leader of our nation, as they pretend to be the president, members of the Cabinet, and other public officials. This program will emphasize making important decisions while recreating significant historical and current events. Common Core State Standards Standards Correlation Grade 4 Speaking & Listening (Comprehension and Collaboration) SL.4.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly. o SL.4.1b: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles. o SL.4.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions to clarify or follow up on information, and make comments that contribute to the discussion and link to the remarks of others. o SL.4.1d: Review the key ideas expressed and explain their own ideas and understanding in light of the discussion. SL.4.3: Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points. Grade 5 Speaking & Listening (Comprehension and Collaboration) SL.5.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-one-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly. o SL.5.1b: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles. o SL.5.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others. o SL.5.1d: Review the key ideas expressed and draw conclusions in light of information and knowledge gained from the discussions. So, You Want to be President 1

2 Common Core Grade 5 Speaking and Listening (Comprehension and Collaboration), continued SL.5.2: Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. Grade 6 Speaking & Listening (Comprehension & Collaboration) SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly. SL.6.1d: Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing. Speaking and Listening (Comprehension and Collaboration), continued SL.6.2: Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study. History/Social Studies (Key Ideas and Details) RH.6-8.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions. History/Social Studies (Integration of Knowledge and Ideas) RH.6-8.7: Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts. District of Columbia Social Studies Content Standards: Grade Describe how the Constitution is designed to secure our liberty by both empowering and limiting central government. DC Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills, Grades Standard / Essential Skill: Chronology and Cause and Effect Students explain how the present is connected to the past, identifying both similarities and differences between the two, and how some things change over time and some things stay the same Students distinguish cause from effect and identify and interpret the multiple causes and effects of historical events Standard/ Essential Skill: Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View Students pose relevant questions about events they encounter in historical documents, eyewitness accounts, oral histories, letters, diaries, artifacts, photographs, maps, artwork, and architecture Students use non-text primary and secondary sources, such as maps, charts, graphs, photographs, works of art, and technical charts. 2

3 Maryland Social Studies State Curriculum Grade 4 Standard 1.0 Political Science Topic B. Individual and Group Participation in the Political System Indicator 2. Defend the importance of civic participation as a citizen of Maryland a. Identify various sources of information that are available to citizens to make political decisions b. Analyze ways people can participate in the political process including voting, petitioning elected officials, and volunteering Grade 5 Standard 1.0 Political Science Topic B. Individual and Group Participation in the Political System Indicator 2: Defend the importance of civic participation as a citizen of Maryland a. Identify various sources of information that are available to citizens to make political decisions b. Analyze ways people can participate in the political process including voting, petitioning elected officials, and volunteering Grades Standard 6.0 (Social Studies Skills and Processes) Topic F. Analyze Social Studies Information Indicator 1: Interpret information from primary and secondary sources a. Interpret information in maps, charts and graphs Indicator 2: Evaluate information from a variety of sources b. Compare information to prior knowledge Indicator 3: Synthesize information from a variety of sources a. Recognize relationships in and among ideas or events, such as cause and effect, sequential order, main idea, and details Topic G. Answer Social Studies Questions Indicator 1. Describe how the country has changed over time and how people have contributed to its change, drawing from maps, photographs, newspapers, and other sources a. Present social studies information in a variety of ways, such as mock trials, simulations, debates, and skits 3

4 Virginia History and Social Science Standards of Learning: USI.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, including the ability to a) identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history to 1865; b) make connections between the past and present; e) evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing; h) interpret patriotic slogans and excerpts from notable speeches and documents. USII.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, including the ability to a) identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history from 1865 to the present; b) make connections between the past and present; e) evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing; h) interpret patriotic slogans and excerpts from notable speeches and documents. VS.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, including the ability to a) identify and interpret artifacts and primary and secondary source documents to understand events in history; c) compare and contrast historical events; e) make connections between past and present; h) evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing. 4

5 Rationale: Civic responsibilities such as voting and staying informed of current events are important ways for Americans to participate in government, yet many citizens are apathetic to or unaware of the functions of the executive branch of government. By allowing young students to play the role of president, it will plant a seed of understanding which will help grow their interest in civic awareness and participation. It will also give them an appreciation of the difficult and significant nature of the presidency. Main Messages: There are special requirements for becoming president. The president has specific responsibilities outlined in a document called the Constitution. (Some people who would later become presidents helped to write the Constitution!) The President has many different jobs and roles to fulfill; many people advise him. His day is full of meetings and responsibilities. Among his responsibilities are: Chief Diplomat The president meets with representatives of other countries. Proposing new laws and policies; signing bills into law. Commander in Chief The president is in charge of all armed forces and asks Congress to declare war. Nation s Leader The president is the only elected official who represents all citizens. Leader of his Political Party Program Objectives: At the conclusion of the program So, You Want to Be President (Grades 4-6), students will be better able to: Describe the qualifications for becoming president Identify the Constitution as the important document which outlines many of the president s roles and responsibilities Discuss some of the president s responsibilities Engage in civic activities, such as voting, staying informed, and petitioning the president Decide what advice they would give the president in various historical situations Explain whether or not they would want the job of being president Assessment: At the end of the lesson, students will be better able to articulate what the president s responsibilities are. [Assessment given at the beginning of the pre-lesson and at the end of post-lesson as an option to teachers to determine students gain in knowledge.] 5

6 Pre-Lesson Pre-lesson objectives: After completing the pre-lesson, students will be better able to: Explain that the president must be elected; people vote for the president to take office. Identify two means of campaigning (poster, TV, buttons, etc.). Design a poster, flag, button, or other campaign item. Brainstorm about the president s responsibilities. Pre-lesson materials: o Image Set 1: The White House: A Place to Live and Work o Image Set 2: The United States Constitution o Image Set 3: Campaign Items o Reproducible: So, You Want to be President? o Optional: Bring in empty Mac and Cheese boxes or other food boxes that have a space where students could paste a campaign image (see Image Set 3for a real example) o Optional: Bring in a suit jacket for students to wear when presenting their campaign posters to the class. Pre-lesson overview: Introduction: 2 Minutes Assessment: 3-5 Minutes Guided Practice Part One: 15 Minutes Guided Practice Part Two: 15 Minutes Required Activity/ Independent Practice: 15 minutes + presentation time Conclusion: 2 minutes Independent Practice: Time dependent on activities selected Approximately 55 minutes plus any extra activities you select (optional) Introduction to New Material: Materials: Image Set 1: The White House: A Place to Live and Work PAGE 1: THE WHITE HOUSE Show image of the White House. Does anyone know the name of this place? Who lives in this house? (The president.) Assessment activity: 3-5 minutes On a piece of paper, write What I know about the President. Make a list of things you know about the president. [After writing activity] The White House is the place where the president lives and works. When we get a new president, the old president moves out of the White House and the new president moves in. Many presidents have lived in the White House in the past 200 years. Does anyone want to share some of the 6

7 things they wrote down? [Collect students lists and save to compare with what they have learned after the post-lesson.] Guided Practice: 10 Minutes (Part One) Part One: The White House is the Place Where Presidents Live and Work Materials: Continue to use Image Set 1 SLIDE 2: WHERE DOES THE PRESIDENT SLEEP? Yes, the president really lives in the White House! He has his own bedroom, and there are bedrooms for his family and guests (16 in all!). These two photographs show two different presidents bedrooms. Can you tell which one is older? (The one on the left because it is a black and white photograph) The black and white photograph is of President Benjamin Harrison s bedroom. He was president from The color photograph shows the president s bedroom when Lyndon B. Johnson was in office. He was president from SLIDE 3: THE WEST WING The President doesn t have to go very far to go to work when he s in Washington D.C.! There is a special part of the White House called the West Wing. The Oval Office is located there. The president also has a special meeting room for his group of advisors. Known as the Cabinet Room, it is next to the Oval Office. SLIDE 4: THE OVAL OFFICE The president s office is oval-shaped, which is why it s called the Oval Office. Ask students to see if they notice any interesting details in the photo of the Oval Office. (The American flag is behind the desk; the other flag is the President s Flag and it has the Presidential Seal on it; the Presidential Seal is also woven into Oval Office carpet. The president has artwork in his office did you know that each president gets to pick which artworks they want to display in their office? There are a few eagles in the office (one on the desk, one on the Seal, and one on the flag.) SLIDE 5: THE CABINET ROOM This picture shows a full Cabinet meeting that took place on July 22, 1992 when George H.W. Bush was president (President George W. Bush s father); he is sitting in the middle of the table, which is where the president always sits in Cabinet meetings). What do you think the Cabinet is? (Allow students to guess by viewing the image and looking at context clues such as the meeting table, people taking notes, etc.) No, it s not actually like the kind of cabinet you would store things inside. The president s Cabinet is a group of people who work to advise him on various issues. An important document called the Constitution (you will view this with your students shortly) stated that the president could at times seek help from a group of advisors. The president can call the Cabinet together when he wants advice, but he does not actually have to take their 7

8 advice. The Cabinet does not vote or make decisions for the president. Cabinet members are heads of fifteen other departments, such as the Department of Education, the Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Defense. What about Barack Obama s Cabinet? Right now there are fifteen cabinet members and several other advisors who have Cabinet-rank. For a complete list of President Obama s Cabinet members see President Obama s Cabinet document or go to (Follow-up activities on the Cabinet are included in the post-lesson). Who works with the president to help him make decisions? (His Cabinet.) SLIDE 6: WHITE HOUSE AND PRESIDENTS TIMELINE Forty-three men have served as president in the more than 200 years since our country was established under the Constitution (Grover Cleveland was elected to two non-consecutive terms so he is considered to be our 22 nd and 24 th President). All of our presidents, except George Washington, have lived and worked in the White House. Let s look at this timeline to see a few of the presidents who have lived in the house and what it looked like while they lived there. #1 George Washington George Washington, our first president, never lived in the White House because it was being built while he was president. In the picture below his portrait, you can see him inspecting the construction of the house. The first president to live in the White House was our second president, John Adams. #4 James Madison James Madison was president during the War of During this war, British soldiers attacked many of the government buildings in the nation s capital. They even set fire to the White House! James Madison and his wife, Dolley Madison, had to move out of the White House after it was burnt! Interesting Fact! Did you know that thanks to Dolley Madison, the portrait of George Washington (above left) was saved from the fire? Before the British arrived, she gave special instructions for the painting to be taken off the wall and carried away to safety. SLIDE 7: #16 Abraham Lincoln He was president during a very difficult time called the Civil War. The north and south of our country were at war with each other. The picture of the White House below his portrait was taken about the time that he was president. This is a very early photograph of the White House. #26 President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt was president about 100 years ago. When he moved into the White House, there was no West Wing (where the president works now) so the president had to use the second floor for living and 8

9 working. The Roosevelts had six children who took up so much space that the president decided it was a good idea to move his staff to a new wing of the White House. Does anyone remember the name of this wing? It was the West Wing (Slide 3). You can see it under construction in the photo below President Roosevelt s portrait. SLIDE 8: #33 Harry Truman was president at the end of World War II and during the Korean War. While he was living in the White House, he often complained about hearing creaks and strange noises at night. He joked that they must be ghosts. As it turned out, the reason the White House was making so much noise is because it was falling apart! President Truman came home one day to find the leg of their piano falling through the floor! He decided that it was time for the 150- year-old White House to be seriously repaired. President and Mrs. Truman lived across the street at the Blair House while the White House was completely updated. (They kept the original walls) #44 President Barack Obama Does everyone know who this is? He is our president today. The color photograph of the White House shows you what the White House looks like today. Now that you ve had this historical tour of the White House, can you name two things the president does there? (The president lives inside the White House with his family. The president works inside the White House.) Guided Practice: 15 Minutes Part Two: Article Two of the Constitution Materials: Image Set 2: The United States Constitution Four color copies of the Constitution (as an optional handout for student groups) On overhead, show students the first page of the Constitution. SLIDE ONE: First Page of the Constitution Ask: How was this written? (Was it typed, on a computer, or hand-written?) Can you read the writing? (Students will probably say no.) Why is it difficult to read? (It s faded in places, it s in cursive) How old do you think this document is and why? (Very old. You can tell by the edges of the paper because they look torn. The paper is also very yellow and the ink has turned brown and is very faded in some places. It s handwritten and today most official documents are printed.) Tell students that this document is the Constitution of the United States and it was written more than 200 years ago in the year

10 SLIDE TWO: Last Page of the Constitution Although the Constitution is four pages long, we aren t going to read it all (you ll do that when you get to middle school!) This is the last page of the Constitution. What do you see at the bottom of the page? (Signatures) Explain that these signatures make the document official, much like you might see your parents sign a check or credit card receipt to make it official. Many men worked together to write the Constitution and they are often referred to as our country s Founding Fathers. Some very famous people signed the Constitution. One of them would become our first president, George Washington. Can anyone locate his signature? (Allow students time to look. Washington s signature is at the top left.) Explain that this document helped set the rules that our country follows. It also created the functions of government that help to keep our citizens safe and protect their rights. Why is it important to have rules? What might happen if we didn t have school rules, or classroom rules? (Answers may vary.) Today we re going to learn a little bit about how the president gets his job. Soon, someone will be visiting our classroom to help us learn more about things the president has to do once he gets his job. Electing the President First of all, if we had to elect someone to be president of our class, what sorts of qualities would we want that person to have? (Solicit answers from students and record on chalk board) What would the purpose of each of those qualities be? Why would we want a president who was (insert quality here i.e. honesty? Answers may vary.) Just as you think that we need certain qualities for a class president, the people who wrote the Constitution thought that there were certain basic qualifications necessary for our country s president. How old do you think you should have to be to be president? (Solicit answers, and then tell students that the Constitution states that you must be 35 years old to be elected president.) Why might an older age be important? (Students answers may vary. Overall, a person who is 35 or older is likely to have some life experience that will help them manage the great responsibilities of being president.) To be president, you also must be a natural born citizen meaning that you must not only be an American citizen, but you had to have been born in the United States, too. 10

11 So, we re going to fast forward and imagine that every one of you is 35 years old. Math connection: Does anyone know how many years in the future that will be? What year will it be? Now that you re old enough, how do you become president? What do you have to do? Required Activity: 15 Minutes + presentation time (presentations are optional) Image Set 3: Campaign Items So, You Want to be President? Reproducibles Crayons or markers If you want to be president, you have to get people to vote for you. Any American citizen who is 18 or older can vote. How do you think people who run for office try to convince people to vote for them? How will people know who you are? (Solicit answers from students.) In order to get people to know who you are, you will need to campaign. A campaign is a way of telling people who you are and what you are going to do for the country. Let s look at how some other people running for the presidency have campaigned. SLIDE ONE: I Like Ike Buttons/ Macaroni and Cheese packages Ike: Can anyone read what this says? It simply says, I like Ike. This presidential candidate s nickname was Ike. This simple sentence made it easy for people to remember Dwight Eisenhower. This short phrase is called a slogan. You are going to get to write your own slogans for your presidential campaign. Macaroni and Cheese packages: Does anyone recognize these pictures? (They are boxes of Macaroni and Cheese.) Sometimes campaign items can be funny objects like this. Does anyone see the different animals on each box? (One box has an elephant and one has a donkey). These animals are symbols for each political party. The donkey stands for Democrats. The elephant stands for Republicans. What do you think about their symbols? If you started your own political party, what animal would you pick as your symbol? [Teacher background on the donkey and the elephant: In general, democrats consider the donkey to be humble, homely, smart, and loveable. Republicans consider the elephant to be dignified, strong, and intelligent." 11

12 SLIDE TWO: Union Nominations (Abraham Lincoln) This is a poster that was used during the 1860 election year. Look at all of the symbols around the poster. What symbols do you see? (stars, the shield looks similar to the flag an eagle with olive branches). All of these symbols are symbols of our country. These symbols are often used on campaign items to remind people of their pride for the country. Now, you are each going to imagine that you are running for president! Pass out reproducible: So, You Want to be President. If completing with younger students, read and explain the directions aloud. If time permits, let some students present their campaign item and tell the class why they would make a good president. Optional material: suit jacket for students to wear when presenting (not included in packet). 12

13 Additional Activities: 1. Tour your new house! Image Set 4: Inside the White House Take students on a White House cutaway tour so that they see some of the 132 rooms of the house, and the office they ll be working in for the next four years. Instructions for each transparency page are included with this transparency set. 2. Scavenger hunt activity: Learn the President s Roles One of the major components of the classroom visit will be learning about some of the president s roles. Provide four groups of students with the following role descriptions (descriptions are with the President s Roles pictures): 1. Commander in Chief 2. Chief Diplomat 3. Leader of our Nation 4. Signing Bills into Law Display the eight photos around the classroom. Read aloud each role description to the class. Ask students to walk around the room and stop once they have found the picture that goes with the role. 3. The activity book, Learn About the White House, has many useful activities regarding the presidency. This book is in the right pocket of your Resource Packet. 4. For more information about the presidency, please visit the White House Historical Association s website at From the main page, click on the Classroom tab. From Classroom, click K-3, then Every Day is President s Day at the White House. This lesson provides more specific information about some U.S presidents. You may find it useful to also introduce students to the Picturing the President s House section in Classroom. Here, students can see portraits and other images from all presidents. 13