5 Major Governments
A fun, interactive way to introduce students to how governments work
Curriculum/State Standards
Government-6.4
Overview
Students will participate in a democracy,
dictatorship, monarchy governments. It
will be at a basic level.
Objectives
The student will be able to tell the
difference between each type of
government.
The student will know the terminology
used in each type of government.
Materials
construction paper, candy, some kind of
jail cell set up, letter stickers
Readiness Activity
1 day of preparation
Strategies/Activities
The day before you actually do this
in your classroom, you will want the
students to create different hats for
different types of governments. Also, you
could create different flags for countries
that have those types of governments.
The 3 types of governments I use are
democracy, dictatorship, monarchy. These
can also be broken down into smaller
sub sets, like communism, oligarchy, etc.
Have the students create special hats
for every job that will be done in each
group. Each group will have a different
set of jobs. Democracy - president, vice
president, and congressman. Dictatorship
- dictator, 2 soldiers, and the rest are
citizens. Monarchy – king, queen, prince
or princess, and 2 soldiers, the rest are
citizens. The day before you will need to
prepare your classroom. You will need
to create a jail cell area, a leader’s chair
or throne - 3 of them - and purchase
candy. During the actual lesson you
will ask each group a question and the
answer allows different people different
rights. Example: What pet is better,
dogs or cats or are they equal? The
answer allows people the right to sit
on their desk. If the answer is dogs,
and you don’t feel that way, you must
stay in your seat. Each question is
answered by the government the way
the government actually works. So
a democracy votes in congress, then
sends it to the president. If vetoed, it
takes 2/3 vote to pass it. Dictatorship whatever a dictator says goes. Dictator
and absolute monarchy are similar. In
monarchy and dictatorship, at any time
these leaders can throw people in jail,
and they should keep control of their
countries. Dictators should be mean
and throw people in jail a lot. Monarchy
has more of a choice to be good or
bad. After the questioning round the
governments, distribute the candy. In a
monarchy and dictatorship, they get to
pick who gets candy and who doesn’t.
Dictators should be ruthless about giving
out little to no candy. Democracy must
vote on how to distribute, I usually say
boys, girls, or equal. Not every time will
it be equal, and that is to show that in
our government, it isn’t always equal
but everyone gets a vote. After every
question and candy round, then the
passing of power round happens. In a
monarchy your king starts out at age
20 and lives to age 80. They roll a die
and add 10 to the number. Then they
add that to their 20 age. If it goes over
THIS WINNING PROJECT IDEA SUBMITTED BY:
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Justin Dible
London City Schools
London, OH
6
GRADE LEVEL
3-5
PERIODS
$95
TOTAL BUDGET
5 Major Governments
....continued....
80 then the power passes to
the next in line. Dictatorship
is different. The person stays
in power until he or she is
voted out by everyone. This I
explain is like raising an army
and over throwing the dictator.
Everyone must vote for the
same person, other than the
dictator, to put that person in
power. If one votes against,
then the original person stays
in power. Democracy - a new
president is elected after every
4 questions, like every 4 years.
People then are voted on to be
president. Same person can only
be president 2 times, like our
government.
Culminating Activity
At the end of each day, go over
what transpired and what you
wanted them to see from each
government.
Evaluation Method
Exit slips each day on what they
learned, and then I have them
write a paragraph on each form
of government and what they
learned from the simulation.