The Goods on Government-teaching levels of government

Another 2nd grade focused post coming at you! However, hopefully other grade levels can take something away from it as well!
TEKS covered: 2.12A, 2.12B, 2.12C, 2.12D, 2.13A, 2.13D

Learning about government can be overwhelming for little ones, hey maybe even for adults too, but it does have importance! How can you make it engaging and bring it down to a level that is easy to grasp?

Well hopefully we did that for our sweet second graders when the teachers taught this unit. We taught this unit over the course of 3 weeks and it did not integrate into reading because we were teaching fairy tales at the time so we had to be strategic with this particular unit and how we used our time for it.

Here is a quick glimpse of how I envisioned we break it down within those few weeks.

So if you read the last post I did about natural hazards/disasters, I said I typically will give my teachers an example/answer key/skeleton of any anchor charts I envision for a unit. This helps me to see if I need to tweak it at all, get feedback, and helps make their life a bit easier.

Right below you will see the smartboard I created that matches the kids brochure they were filling out as they learned about each level of government. That way the teacher had an option to integrate technology as well as make it large for everyone to follow along easier.

Directly above is an example of an anchor chart and answer key I created for the teachers to use as well if they wanted it. It also included some essential questions that align to the TEKS. So basically this chart is built on throughout the unit NOT all in one day!!

Grab the Smartboard download HERE (both versions included)

***The anchor chart above is not setup in the printable resource as a typical 8.5x11 size since it is designed to be printed large. You may want to preview on print screen, test print, or adjust printer settings before you print for youself as an anchor chart.***

We chunked the unit by teaching each level of government and then tying it all together at the end.
This chart is intended to be printed on a plotter aka poster maker. We are very blessed to have one so I was able to print off the skeleton of the chart and the teachers can laminate to use each year still utilizing the "make it with the kids" approach. It just gives them guidance.

So here is what the kids used as their interactive journal for the unit-the brochure!

This was also filled out throughout the unit. Some teachers elected the kids to glue it in their interactive notebooks and pulled it out when they needed it or took it up at the end of each learning time and handed it back out when they were completing the next section. 

You will notice I made them little pictures of each person to glue down, however, after completing it I decided not to include those in the download because well, if you don't live in Texas you won't have the same officials and eventually when the president changes I would have to go back and redo the whole resource. Sorry I just don't have that kind of time haha.

You can easily download pictures of your officials and make them small with multiple to a page.

So in order to make this easy I have included the TEXAS version of all you see AND a generic version (for those not in TX but teach levels of government). So when you download just make sure to pay attention to which pages you are printing :) 

Hopefully this helped you in some way and makes teaching government a tad easier and fun! Please don't hesitate to ask questions-sometimes I leave things out unintentionally because, well, my brain.is.tired.and.I.am.human. :)

Head over to take a peek and see if you'd like to add this resource to your teaching files!

Click HERE

IT IS ON SALE for the FIRST 48 HOURS!!! 

Have a BLESSED week! 

"You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word."

Psalm 119:114