High School Government Series

high-school-government

If you are a parent of a student in high school, at some point your student has to take a class on government. To make the study of high school government more enjoyable, your student will LOVE these goofy videos and hands-on activities!

High School Government Videos:

  1. Types of Government: A fun video re-enacting dictatorship, oligarchy, monarchy, republic, true democracy, and anarchy. Includes my kids dressed up as playing cards.
  2. How a Bill Becomes a Law: My daughter (a bill) is pushed around by her brothers (Congress and the President) through the process of making a bill into a law.
  3. Preamble to the Constitution: A simple reading of the Preamble to the Constitution, with skits of various kinds to humorously bring to life each segment.
  4. Presidential Line of Succession: The President keels over, to be replaced by the Vice-President; who keels over to be replaced by the Speaker of the House; who keels over to be replaced…
  5. What are the Federal Executive Departments? Each of the Federal Executive Departments are dramatized by goofy kids in order to understand each department better.
  6. How the Judicial System Works: A Chicago gangster is counterfeiting money in his basement. Two federal agents break into his house and tell him he in under arrest. The remainder of the short video depicts how the judicial system works.
  7. The Bill of Rights: The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution are dramatized in this fun video.
  8. Make Your Own State Tourism Brochures: We take a break from all of our skits to show how to make a tourist pamphlet for your state. A couple of my kids have humorous pamphlets.
  9. Typical Campaign Promises: A silly skit by a candidate running for President, promising outlandish things that can never be fulfilled.
  10. How Government Gets Its Money: No matter what you do with your money, the government will want a piece of the action. Watch each scene from federal, state, and local taxes to see how the government holds out his hand for money to be forked over.

A couple of other hands-on activities go well with the study of high school government:

  1. Civitas Government Game: My kids loved this game, re-enacted it, and filmed it from the roof of my house. Make their risk worth it by watching their video, which was created, filmed, and edited entirely by my teen sons.
  2. Government Activity Books for High School: These Dover Publications books include pop-up Presidents, a 3-D White House model, and activity books that include other hands-on craft ideas. There are detailed coloring pages that can be used for notebooking, along with word searches, crossword puzzles, and code breakers.

Hopefully these skits and hands-on activities will make your students enjoy their study of high school government!

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28 Responses to “High School Government Series”

  1. Katie says:

    Oh my goodness! This is amazing!! I used to make videos with my friends and brothers all the time! What an amazing way to learn… by doing it yourself and watching later! I’ll keep these in mind when my Littles get older! 🙂

    • Susan says:

      I’ve loved making videos ever since I was a little girl. I was born for the stage. Now my kids are following in my footsteps, as this is the way I teach them!

  2. Hannah says:

    I love how creative and fun learning can be! I believe that when we can make the content engaging like the examples that you’ve given, then kids are more likely to actually remember what they learned! I know that studied hard and memorized tons of facts and information, and now, I don’t remember any of it!

    • Susan says:

      Forcing yourself to memorize boring information is the most difficult way to learn. Both humor and hands-on learning help kids to remember what they learn while having fun.

  3. Heather Hart says:

    Seriously. I love it. My favorite part of homeschooling was how fun learning about history was.

  4. Keisha says:

    This is truly the best way to learn!! Thank you so much for sharing!

  5. Melissa says:

    I love all of your government videos! I’m going to pin this so I can refer to it in a few years!

  6. Julie says:

    What a great selection of videos you have here, Susan! So helpful to kids learning about government!

  7. Lori says:

    Susan, I loved these videos. My son and I watched a few back in the summer while he was finishing up government. I’ve pinned this.

  8. Alice Mills says:

    I bet your kid’s retention of information is through the roof! You combine so many different modes of learning!

  9. Ann (Neethu) says:

    this so interesting and fun way of learning. When kids enjoy the methods they tend to register a lot of what they have learned.

  10. Awesome! Making learning fun makes the information connect so much better! Thanks for sharing!

    • Susan says:

      You’re welcome. I’ve noticed now that we are watching DVD’s about the Constitution, that the kids understand so much more than I ever did at their age because of all these skits and hands-on projects.

  11. Kristi says:

    What a great resource! Your family looks like you are having so much fun with it. Coupling learning with fun is always a wonderful way to keep it in the memory vault.

  12. I live just outside DC and there are so many museums to visit. However, to see the government at work a trip to the Capitol is a must! Also, a trip to the Archives to see our original Constitution is captivating too!

  13. Merry says:

    History was always one of my favorite homeschool topics when I was growing up, and your posts illustrates why! Learning can and SHOULD be so fun! Love this!

    • Susan says:

      I hated history when I was a kid because it was dates and facts to be memorized. I love history now that I can actually enjoy and understand it. The schools do it wrong.

  14. Thara says:

    Heya.
    I agree with you fully. When I studied history as a child I ended up making posters on famous historical events in order to begin with. We then discussed world history events in class each week. And we went on trips to museums and other towns in addition to discover history. Good luck. I did a lot of research on the important historical figures in question.
    One such activity is to make a short timeline of the big events. History is fun. I even read a few different historical fiction books as a child. Always make brief summary notes. I encourage you to look beyond the lines of the official history curriculum. I use this cool teaching technique all the time to promote creativity and higher order thinking ability at the same time. Choose cheap history games and books as outlets for class history topics and lessons. Colour is important.
    In other words we tend to explore less common history topics in lesson. It makes the world of history come alive totally. Seriously. History needs a outlet like science, math and geography to influence pupil interest and skills. Do research.

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