Patriot Club News!
August 2016
By Gayle Poole, Texas
Patriot Club Leader & Winner, Best Short Film by an Adult, 2013
We had our fourth Patriot Club and had lots of fun learning more about our wonderful Constitution!
While we waited for everyone to arrive, the kids had fun jumping on hay bales that had examples of how to be a good citizen!
September 2015
By Gayle Poole, Texas
Patriot Club Leader & Winner, Best Short Film by an Adult, 2013
Our first Patriot club went great!
I was a little nervous planning it, but when the kids arrived, fun happened! We had five stations, with ten minutes at each one:
1: A Bill of Rights Stack race – two teams raced to make a pyramid of our freedoms from the Bill of Rights, written on each cup)
- They had to say them out loud as they placed them.
- It was a relay, so each child on the team had a turn.
- If the cups fell, they had to start over.
2: Bells – they played the song “America” on a child’s set of hand bells. I had the music color coded, so they could play it on the spot. All ages enjoyed this.
3: Meet Ben Franklin – they learned some great things about the oldest Founding Father.
4: George Washington puzzle – I cut a free printable color page of George Washington’s face then separated it into five segments.
- I typed a fact on each piece, (he refused to be king, he once returned a dog to the enemy, etc)
- I copied a sheet for each child, on different colored paper.
- The kids took turns rolling two dice. If they got a double 1 through 5, they took a slice of their puzzle, trying to complete his face.
- If they threw a double six, they had to return all their pieces to their stack and start over.
5: Know their names – we played memory with the names of the Founding Fathers.
- On just a few of the not so well known men, I added a fact (ex: Roger Sherman – only American to sign all 4)
- I would occasionally mention that fact as they turned over their cards.
We then had a potluck picnic and a hay ride. As an end to the night, we had a review candy toss with questions from all of our stations.
All of my parents were eager to man a station or help in any way and the kids were happy playing the games.
I had invited about twenty five kids, but fifteen were able to come. I will double the invitations next time. It was a great night and a thrill to see the kids have fun learning!
The ideas just keep coming for future Patriot Clubs! It was way easier than I thought to get started.
Gayle Poole, Texas
Patriot Club Leader & Winner, Best Short Film by an Adult, 2013
The United States Constitution
Branches of Govt.
Article 1 Section 2
Congress
House of Representatives
-Age 25 years old
-7 years a citizen of the USA
-# of Representatives is based on population (Census) of each State. [ Originally based on the number (#) of FREE PERSONS. Excluding Native Americans, not taxed and 3/5ths of all other persons.
-1st Census was 1787 +3 = 1790 and then every 10 years after that.
-# of Representative per State = 1 per 30,000 persons with a minimum of 1 per State.
In 1787 (prior to 1790)
New Hampshire = 3
Rhode Island/Providence Plantation = 1
Massachuettes = 8
Connecticut = 5
New York = 6
New Jersey = 4
Pennsylvania = 8
Delaware = 1
Maryland = 6
Virginia = 10
North Carolina = 5
South Carolina = 5
Georgia = 3
Article 1 Section 3
Senate
-2 Senators per State
-6 years
-Originally Senators were selected by the State Legislature (changed in the 17th Amendment*)
– Age 35
– 9 years a citizen of the USA
The US Vice President is PRESIDENT of the Senate but he/she has no voting power for Bills (unless the political parties are equally divided)
*Amendment 17 ratified on 4/8/1913 changed this part:
-2 Senators per State ELECTED by the PEOPLE
-still 6 year terms
-Each Senator has 1 vote
Senators serve 6 years, but every 2 years 1/3 of the Senate is up for Re-election.
What do they do?
Power to Impeach
Impeach means Impeachment in the United States is an expressed power of the legislature that allows for formal charges against a civil officer of government for crimes committed in office. The actual trial on those charges, and subsequent removal of an official on conviction on those charges, is separate from the act of impeachment itself.
At the Philadelphia Convention, Benjamin Franklin noted that, historically, the removal of “obnoxious” chief executives had been accomplished by assassination. Franklin suggested that a proceduralized mechanism for removal — impeachment — would be preferable.[1]