Ms. B's Guide to Government *Freebie

I have lots of opinions when it comes to government. This makes it interesting to teach, because I think the system Americans have devised is (while imperfect. very.) pretty interesting. The problem is, what makes it interesting to me...
*why people do what they do*what we can do about it*the intricacies of the decision-making process*what gets in the way of making good decisions*what we can do about it*who makes things happen*two-party politics and why it's scary*why people don't realize everyone can see twitter
isn't all that interestingto an eight year old.
except for maybe the twitter partand they don't care about my opinions, either.
But this year (and next), we are in a great position to encourage interest in how our government works. We're in the middle of a presidential election, and, while personally terrifying for me, it is a completely accessible, motivating, and exciting way to get kids interesting in learning about government.
Once you've got them hooked, you have to decide what to do about it. If you're like me, your textbooks - eh.There's some information in there that is useful, but mostly it's pretty dull. And there aren't too many great and useful ideas to do with it. 
So I hunted around and found this website for kids.Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
It. Is. Awesome.It's got tons of information written in a pretty user-friendly way, organized around big ideas of government (branches of government, which is a big one for us, Symbols, How Laws are Made, the Election Process) and best of all, it's written at different levels! K-2, 3-5, and there are upper grades too. It's terrific.
After I found the site, I needed some stuff to do with it.So I made this. I'm super excited to use it next week.It's one of the few things motivating me to return to work.And not run off to Mexico.Also, the part of Mexico that I'm only fifteen minutes from is pretty dangerous.Hence, my appreciation for American Government.
You can get it at TPT or Teacher's Notebook.

And here's a freebie from the pack!

Grab it at TPT.
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