A 5th grade lesson plan on the United States Government. All pictures were taken from google images, they are not my own.

1. The United States Government

2. 5th grade Government Standard:
I can explain major responsibilities of each of the 3
branches of government.
The Legislative Branch
The Executive Branch
The Judicial Branch
I can explain that democracies, dictatorships and
monarchies are categories for understanding the
relationship between those in power or authority and
citizens

3. Have you ever thought about who
runs the government?

4. Or maybe: What is the government?

5. Well……
The government is a group of adults who make rules
to help people live together peacefully.
Kind of like your parents helping to make peace with
your brother’s and sister’s or your teacher trying to
make peace between your class mates.
Our countries government tries to help everyone in
the entire country get along and be peaceful.

6. One important person that you may think of when you think
of the government is the President of the United States.
Actually he is a big part of the government, but he cannot do
everything on his own, so he needs other people to help him.
President Barack Obama

7. The United States President works at the “National”
level of the government along with other men and
women.
National level means the entire country of the United
States.

8. Since the United States is so big, the president needs help
at the “local” level of the government. He has someone in
charge at the state level. So since we live in Ohio, we have
a person in charge of the Ohio government.
The person who is in charge of Ohio is kind of like the
president, but only for our state. Instead of being called
president, he is called governor. The governor is in charge
of keeping Ohio peaceful and protected.
Each state has their own governor.

9. Here is a picture of the current
governor of Ohio

10. Since each state is so big, the governor needs help
taking care of the state, so each town or city has
someone to take care of it and help the governor.
This person is called the mayor. There are just about
as many mayors of a state as there are towns and
cities.

11. So, lets review the 3 levels of
government:
The National level (The entire United States)
The State level (The state you live in ex. Ohio)
The Local level (the town or city you live in ex. Akron)

12. Now that you have learned the
three levels of government,
there are also 3 branches of
government

13. The 3 Branches are:

16. The answer is the system of checks and balances!
This means that as a country we don’t want one
group of people to have all of the power, so we have
to have different groups to represent different views.

17. So… What does the Executive
Branch do?
The executive branch is lead by the president.
The president is also called the “Commander in Chief”
and he is responsible for the military (army, marines,
coast guard, navy, seals etc…)
The president also makes sure laws are being
followed
He is able to sign a law or veto a law

18. What does sign a law or veto a law
mean?
If the president signs a law it means that he wants the
law to pass, but if he veto’s a law it means he wants it
to fail; he does not agree with the law.

19. What does the Legislative Branch do?
The legislative branch is lead by Congress
Who is Congress?
The Congress in the United States is two groups of
people (the Senate and the House of representatives;
who we will learn more about in another lesson)that
make decisions, along with the president, about the
laws of the country.

20. What is the legislative branch
continued….
This group of people help to pass laws
Approve how the money from taxes will be spent
And… if the president does not like a certain law and
vetoes it, the Congress can go against the president
and still pass the law, as long as enough people agree
to it.

21. What is the Judicial Branch?
The only thing that I am going to tell you about the Judicial
Branch, is that it is lead by the Supreme Court and federal
court.
Your assignment is to research this branch and give me
three more facts about it.
Here are some websites that will be helpful for this
assignment.
www.congressforkids.net
http://government.mrdonn.org/powerpoints/3branches.ht
ml

22. The last part of your assignment
Once you find the information about the judicial
branch, look at more information about the other 2
branches and write a one paragraph summary
comparing and contrasting the three.
I would like for your paragraph to have an
introductory sentence, 5 supporting sentences and a
concluding sentence. That is a total of at least 7
sentences.