Dec. 13, 2006: New York's Federal Hall
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. Draw your own picture of
Federal Hall or cut out a picture from The Mini Page and paste it in the
middle of a piece of paper. Draw four lines from Federal Hall toward the
corners of your paper. At the end of each line, write down something about
Federal Hall or something that happened in Federal Hall.
2. Show the Bill of Rights
section in The Mini Page to different family members and friends. Ask
them to name the amendment they think is most important. Which amendments
were selected most often? What different reasons did people give for their
answers?
3. Look at the amendments in
the Bill of Rights. Find newspaper stories that relate to three of the
rights in the amendments. Write the headline of each story on a piece
of paper. Under each headline, explain how the story relates to the amendment.
4. Find a story about a government
official or a government official in the newspaper. Write several sentences
explaining why that information is important for citizens and voters.
5. Use resource books and the
Internet to learn more about the origins of the Bill of Rights. Use these
questions to guide your research:
- Why weren't the rights included in the original Constitution?
- Where did James Madison get his ideas about what those rights should be?
- Why were some people against the Bill of Rights?
- What compromises were made in Congress so the Bill of Rights would be accepted?
Write a paragraph explaining
the early history of the Bill of Rights.
This week's standards:
- Students understand the purpose of government. (Social Studies: Power, Authority and Governance)
- Students identify key ideals of the United States' democratic republican form of government. (Social Studies: Civic Ideals and Practice)
(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)
