RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES We are reading about, writing about, and discussing the rights and responsibilities of being a US citizen. These discussions could go on for days, as the kids have so many wonderful questions about how our government works. I'm hoping their new learning and questions are making it home-they would make great dinner conversations! In reading, students were broken into 4 small groups to read stories that helped answer the question "What are the rights and responsibilities of being a US citizen?" Once the story was read and discussed with their group, students met with kids from other groups to hear about other stories and discuss how each story illustrated good citizenship. We then read a connecting passage that helped bring it all together. Ideas discussed included: serving in the military, jury duty, taking care of animals, peacefully protesting, and helping others being bullied. On Thursday, Jan. 14, we had a special treat. Representative Jim Butler came in and talked with the students about the structure of our government, how a bill becomes a law, and the ins and outs of his job. Then he took the students through an exercise where they proposed bills (that was fun!), voted on which they were most interested in, then voted on one to "become" a law. They chose to decrease the school year from October-April. Keep dreaming, kiddos... :) From there, we moved on to a study of the Bill of Rights. We were introduced to it through a short video, then delved into each of the first 10 amendments. Our focus is really on the 5 rights listed in the first amendment. Students were broken into small groups and asked to list those rights in order of importance to them. They then had to defend why they chose the right they chose as the first. It's a great process for the kids to go through and talk about what each right really means. Students were then asked to go home to discuss these rights with their families and to post on Google Classroom which one they thought was the most important. Here are some of their responses:
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AuthorAnne Kenney Archives
May 2016
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