Overview Page

Social Studies, Grade 5

Unit: Government

New York State Learning Standard:

Standard SS5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

 Key Idea SS5.3: 

Central to civics and citizenship is an understanding of the roles of the citizen within American constitutional democracy and the scope of a citizen’s rights and responsibilities

 

 Standards Benchmarks:

SS5.6c.1 Knows ways in which authority is used and ways in which power can be used without authority and how it limits the power of people in government

-governors of states have the authority to carry out and enforce laws

 -systems of checks and balances

 -power of government is limited by the constitution

 -protect personal, political and economic rights

SS5.6c.2 Knows the basic purposes of government in the United States

 -to protect the rights of individuals

 -to promote the common good

 -branches and responsibilities

SS5.6c.3 Knows some basic uses of constitutions or other legal, political and historic documents (e.g., to set forth the purposes of government, to describe the way a government is organized and how power is allocated, to define the relationship between a people and their government)

SS5.6c.5  Citizenship in the United States, Canada and nations of Latin America includes an awareness of the patriotic celebrations of those nations.

 -Holidays that honor significant people and events

 Outline

1.   The United States Constitution

2.   Democracy

3.   The Legislative Branch

4.   The Executive Branch

5.   The Judicial Branch

6.   Checks and Balances

7.   Constitution Day