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 Constitution Day activities you can use to get your students thinking about the significance of one of our nation’s most important documents, the events and commentary that led to its ratification, and how its principles still apply today.
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.
You can customize the activity templates by adjusting settings, editing existing questions, or adding content to create a more comprehensive assessment. With a Newsela Social Studies license, you can also explore the documents, letters, and other resources related to the U.S. Constitution.
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.
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 the powers of state and local governments.
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.
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.
Brutus was a pseudonym for a prominent Anti-Federalist during the debates over the ratification of the Constitution. 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.
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 advocated for 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.
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.
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 to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Want some alternatives to primary source documents to teach about the Constitution? Try one of these activities designed for each grade band:
Introduce your youngest students to the Constitution with a video activity. Have them watch a short video that explains the document’s basics and ask students to complete the associated comprehension questions to assess their understanding.
Use this exit ticket for upper elementary students to check their comprehension about the Constitution before moving on to your next lesson. They’ll share their knowledge on the purpose of the document, its parts and features, and why it’s important.
Help your middle schoolers better understand the amendments. Students will answer multiple-choice, true or false, and matching questions to show what they know about the rights and freedoms established and upheld by the amendments.
Give your high schoolers a review or a quiz on the Bill of Rights with this activity. Students will share their knowledge of the amendments and what rights or freedoms they protect.
Want to create your own Constitution Day activity or formative assessment and aren’t sure where to start? Your AI-powered teaching assistant, Luna, can help! Try one of these grade-band-appropriate prompts, or start chatting with Luna right in Formative to see what you can dream up together:
Try these prompts to create intro activities perfect for teaching your youngest students about the U.S. Constitution:
Go deeper with students who already know the basics of the Constitution with prompts like:
Have middle school students practice their critical thinking skills with the activities these prompts can generate:
Help your oldest students learn more about how the Constitution works today with these prompts and activities:
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 in to 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, enhance a PDF or existing document, or ask Luna to help.
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