Branches Of Government Tree

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Help us review for our final! Student have learned about the different branches of government but need an activity to help organize the different functions in each branch. The student's task will be to organize and analyze material related to our study of civics this semester.

My students are lower level students who need different activities to reinforce learning.

Since the school I teach at is a rural lower income school, it is sometimes difficult to get the materials we need to complete these various activities. My students tend to learn better when we can complete more artistic projects that allow them to synthesis information in a less traditional way. The school I teach at is a small (less than 500) student school with a very racially diverse student population. The student body is roughly 1/3rd white, 1/3rd black, and 1/3rd Hispanic. School can be difficult for some of my Hispanic students because they lack a higher understanding of the English language, so it is important that I find activities to help them learn the material. My students come from lower income families, they sometimes cannot afford the materials they need for day to day activities in class, such as, paper and pencils. So, it is unrealistic to think they could provide these items.

My Project

The activity I would like my students to participate in is the creation of a "Tree" of the Branches of government. Students will make a tree trunk with 3 branches out of the brown paper and then create leaves with the other colors. On each leaf, the students will label and explain one of the functions of a branch of government. They will then place the leaf on the correct branch of the tree. For example, a student may write "Veto Power- the ability to reject a law made by Congress", they would then place it on the Executive "Branch" on the tree. They will repeat this process until they have a full tree. The leaf colors will also represent the different functions of each branch of government. Colors will mean the following: Red-Checks and Balances(Ex. Veto Power), Green- Types of Officials, job of these officials,and the number of officials(Ex. Senator), Yellow: Supporting staff of the branch(Ex. Cabinet), Orange: Main function of the branch(Write Laws).

This will allow my students to create a tangible object about a topic that is often too abstract for students to understand.

By completing this project it will allow students to review 40% of the material that will be covered on the final exam. My students really learn through the creative process, but I cannot always afford to buy the materials I need for 3 classes. Please help my students reinforce this very important information and help make them better citizens at the same time!