Grade 5 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 12, Lesson 1

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
America Will Be

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 12, Lesson 1: Forming a Government (pp. 292-296)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Change and Scarcity Boundary disputes, money problems, and fear of rebellion created a need for a strong central government.

Ask students to imagine that it is the first day of school, and the only instruction they are given upon entering the building is who their teacher is. Discuss what might happen as a result (finding or claiming a classroom, determining a schedule, when to use the playground or gym, and so on). Then have them decide what they would do to organize the school so everything would go smoothly.

Have groups of students discuss what they think our country might have been like if states had their own government and no federal government was ever created. As a class, talk about the problems the young country faced (fighting over land, war debt, rebellion).

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Ask students to pick one of the reasons people wanted a strong central government and write a short speech that argues for it.
Have students look at the illustration of Shays's Rebellion on p. 296 and make their own illustration of it.

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