Sept. 7, 2005: Constitution Convention City

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain News. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers. Click here to learn about subscribing to the eEdition at no cost to you (for Colorado teachers).

Activities:

1. Create a newspaper front page with stories about the delegates meeting to write a new constitution in Philadelphia.

2. Find words, illustrations and photos in the newspaper that show different ways delegates could get to Philadelphia today.

3. What could delegates do if they held their meeting in your community? Look in the newspaper for three places they could eat, two entertainment events they could attend and one sporting event they could see. Explain your choices.

4. If a representative of your community went to a meeting in another major city, what important local news would he/she want to know? Find three local stories that might be important to the delegate. Write the headlines on a piece of paper. Under each headline, write several sentences explaining why the news is important.

5. Use resource books and the Internet to learn more about the meeting that produced the Constitution. Use these questions to guide your research:

• Why did the delegates want to change the Articles of Confederation they had followed before?
• What were the biggest areas of disagreement among the delegates?
• Which men took leadership roles in the process?
  

This week's standards:

• Students understand the U.S. Constitution and why it is important. (Civics)
• Students understand government and where people in government get the authority to make, apply, and enforce rules and laws, and manage disputes about them. (Civics)
• Students understand the human and physical characteristics of places. (Geography)
  
  (standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi