Many of your students have probably heard the phrase “We the People.” Whether they’ve heard it in class, read it in a book, or heard it related to election coverage, they may know the words but not what they stand for or where they come from. Constitution Day is the perfect time to build that background knowledge.
Today, we’re showing you 10 Constitution Day activities you can use to get your students thinking about the significance of one of our nation’s most important documents and the events and commentary that led to its ratification.
Many of the founding documents of our government still apply to all our citizens today. Help your students understand their significance by exploring each one and looking for ways the liberties and freedoms outlined within them affect their lives.
Each document has an interactive activity from the shared Formative Library to engage students and make lesson planning easier. You can customize the activity templates by adjusting settings like awarding partial credit for specific questions, randomizing the question order, and tagging questions to additional standards. You can also edit existing questions and add content for a more targeted or comprehensive assessment.
Plus, Newsela Social Studies subscribers have access to even more great features that make teaching and sharing primary source texts easier than ever. Help students break down these documents at five different reading levels to dig into the content without the barriers of advanced 18th-century language.
On September 17, 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution. Less than a year later, on June 21, 1788, it became the official framework of the United States government when New Hampshire became the ninth of 13 states to ratify it into law. Today, the Constitution still serves as the document that lists and protects the rights, liberties, and freedoms of all U.S. citizens.
Have students read the full text of the Constitution or pick and choose sections, like the preamble, articles, or amendments, to explore. Then, test their understanding of its principles with a Formative interactive activity that includes questions and prompts about:
On December 15, 1791, Congress adopted the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. Anti-Federalists pushed for these amendments, claiming the Constitution didn’t have necessary limits on government power. They wanted these safeguards added to the document to protect individual liberties and state and local government powers.
Have students read the Bill and then use the interactive Formative activity to have them answer questions that:
Before we had the Constitution, we had the Articles of Confederation. Following the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress adopted this document—known as the first constitution—in 1777 to establish the United States’ first national government. Federalists found this document to promote a weak central government, which led them to draft and propose the new Constitution we still have today.
Students can read the Articles of Confederation and compare and contrast its articles with those of the Constitution. Then, have students complete an interactive Formative activity that checks their comprehension on:
Federalists and Anti-Federalists were two of the earliest opposing parties in the U.S. government. Federalists valued a strong central government, while Anti-Federalists felt that a large central government wouldn’t work in a nation as large as America. Instead, they favored state and local governments that could better serve the people they were supposed to represent.
In the 1780s, members of each group wrote a collection of essays—known as the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers—in support of and opposition to ratifying the Constitution. Introduce students to selections from these argumentative texts to better understand the debates that led to the Constitution’s ratification. Newsela Social Studies teachers can use leveled texts for each essay to help students simultaneously build knowledge and reading skills.
Brutus was a pseudonym for a prominent Anti-Federalist during the Constitution ratification debates. Historians aren’t sure about Brutus’ identity, but many believe New York state judge Robert Yates wrote these and other Anti-Federalist papers. No matter the author, this person’s essays provided some of the most direct and compelling arguments against the Federalist push for the Constitution.
Have students read the full text of the first Anti-Federalist essay, published in the “New York Journal” on October 18, 1787, that examined the clauses of the Constitution and determined that the new document would give too much power to the centralized government and take away individual and states rights.
Then, have students complete the interactive Formative activity to check their understanding of concepts like:
During the same month and year, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay began publishing their own collection of essays—now called the Federalist Papers—under the collective pseudonym Publius. These documents aimed to argue in favor of implementing a new Constitution that valued a centralized federal government.
Hamilton wrote the first essay, published on October 27, 1787, in the “Independent Journal.” In the piece, he argued the benefits of the new constitution and how it would better benefit the public than the current decentralized government under the Articles of Confederation.
Have students read Hamilton’s essay and compare and contrast it with the Anti-Federalist Brutus 1 essay and how their claims and arguments differ. Then, assign the interactive Formative activity that asks students to:
On November 22, 1787, James Madison had his first Federalist Paper published in the “New York Packet.” In it, he described how the new Constitution would form a republic in which elected leaders would act on their citizens' behalf to ensure everyone’s voice was heard.
Students can read the full text of Madison’s first essay and then complete the interactive Formative activity where they can:
In another essay published on February 6, 1788, in the “New York Packet,” Madison and the Federalists addressed the new government structure proposed in the Constitution. They discussed dividing power among different branches of government and introducing checks and balances so that no branch could become too powerful.
Share the full text of Federalist Paper No. 51 with students and then assign the interactive Formative activity to check their comprehension of key topics like:
In addition to the published Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, early U.S. political leaders wrote letters and provided other private or semi-private commentary on their views of our first iterations of government. Have students read these primary source texts to learn more about top leaders’ thoughts on revamping the government, which eventually led to the ratification of the Constitution.
Before all 13 states ratified the Articles of Confederation in 1781, Alexander Hamilton had time to review and critique the messaging. In 1780, he wrote a letter to Revolutionary leader James Duane expressing his concerns about the unfair division of federal and state powers in the Articles.
Have students read Hamilton’s letter and then complete the interactive Formative activity to check their comprehension by answering questions about:
Like Hamilton, George Washington felt the Articles of Confederation could be improved. In 1785, he wrote a letter to James Warren, president of the third Provincial Congress, criticizing the Articles and the nation's lack of a strong central government. Students can read the full text of Washington’s letter and then complete the interactive Formative activity to show what they know about:
John Jay was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and one of the most prominent Federalists. He contributed to the Federalist Papers and made his voice heard in support of the Constitution. In 1786, before the Constitution’s ratification, he wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson expressing his dissatisfaction with the government structure under the Articles of Confederation and the challenges he felt the nation faced because of it.
Assign the full text of Jay’s letter and then ask students to complete the interactive Formative activity and check their comprehension on topics like:
Before the first state ratified the Constitution in September 1787, delegates from all states except Rhode Island met in Philadelphia in May to address problems with the country’s weak central government. At the convention, delegates presented two proposals for the national constitution and government structure: James Madison’s Virginia Plan and William Paterson’s New Jersey Plan. The eventual compromise between the two, the Connecticut Plan, also emerged from this convention.
Madison kept notes about the debates during the plan presentations at the convention. Have students read his notes and then check their knowledge on the topic with an interactive Formative activity that looks at key concepts like:
The Formative Library has a variety of free, pre-made activities developed by our curriculum experts and educators like you. You can use these templates as-is or customize them to fit your instructional needs. Use the library’s sort filters to browse content by subject and grade level to find what you want.
Create your own if you don’t see a template that matches your instructional needs! Log into your Formative account and choose how to customize your lesson or assessment. You can create new slides with various multimedia, including audio and video, import content from Google, or enhance a PDF or existing document.
Don’t have a Formative account yet? Sign up for Formative for free today to start creating activities for U.S. Constitution Day and beyond!
