TWIN FALLS, Idaho — They watched School House Rock and learned about the first ten amendments, then broke in to groups to discuss ideas for what to include in their own Bill of Rights.
- Constitution Day is observed on Sept. 17.
- Mrs. Jones' 5th Grade class learned about the Constitution, focusing on the Bill of Rights.
- Students then made a list if ideas to include in their own Bill of Rights. A vote of 3/4 of students is needed to ratify each idea.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
September 17th celebrates the 237th anniversary of the ratification of the constitution in 1787.
So, Lauren Jones's 5th grade class at Bickel Elementary is learning about the constitution.
"Today is Constitution Day," Jones told Idaho News 6. "We're going to be digging into that background and in particular we're going to be focused on the bill of rights and we're going to be building a classroom bill of rights."
After learning about the first ten amendments, students broke into groups to create their own classroom bill of rights.
"We're going to talk about those things that are important what rights we need in this classroom as students as a group of family community and then we're going to practice our ratification process," Jones said. "If everybody doesn't agree, or at least 3/4 of us, then it can't go into effect."
And the students came armed with ideas.
Juliana's idea was to have "brain breaks."
"We have a lot of work all day — like all day. We have no brain breaks because we're working super hard," Juiana said.
"I was thinking that we could do movies Thursday after lunch," Ellie said.
Aiden wanted to see field trips every Friday. Waddaha wanted 15-minute free time more often. Bella thought students should have a little reward for when they were doing good.
And while a few of those ideas might sound more like 'perks' than rights, give them time,
"They're still learning because it is important to know how this is going to go," Jones said. "We are in control of it but not necessarily elementary level, we're pushing these kids a little further than maybe some people would, but I think it's going to be a good thing."
