Today’s Walking Classroom podcast talks about our government’s system of checks and balances. The U.S. government has three branches: the executive, judicial, and legislative. A system of “checks and balances” prevents any one branch from becoming too powerful. Our Founding Fathers designed the system this way because they had just fought for freedom from the British King, whom they felt had too much power over the original thirteen colonies.
Character Value: Compromise
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Common Core
L–Language | SL–Speaking and Listening | RI–Reading: Informational | RL–Reading: Literature | W–Writing | RH–6-8 Literacy in History/Social Studies | RST–6-8 Literacy in Science & Technical Subjects Elementary School:RI.3.2, RI.3.3, L.3.4, SL.3.1, SL.3.4
RI.4.2, RI.4.5, L.4.4, SL.4.1, SL.4.4
RI.5.2, RI.5.3, RI.5.5, L.5.4, SL.5.1, SL.5.4
Middle School:
RI.6.2, RI.6.3, RI.6.5, L.6.4, SL.6.1, SL.6.4
RI.7.2, RI.7.3, RI.7.5, L.7.4, SL.7.1, SL.7.4
RI.8.2, RI.8.3, RI.8.5, L.8.4, SL.8.1, SL.8.4
RH.6-8.4
Supplemental Resource Links and Downloads
Quiz: (Make sure you're already logged into your Gmail account, then click to copy this Google form to your Google Drive. Quiz keys are here.)
Checks and Balances Google Quiz
Slide Deck:
Checks and Balances Slide Deck
Discusses in a song how a bill goes through the House, Senate, and President to become a law.
Uses a song to compare three branches of government to a three ring circus.
Features a rap with the three branches of government as cartoon superheroes.
Explains how system of checks and balances was created and how it works.
Take a virtual tour of the U.S. Capitol, where the Legislative Branch makes laws, from Architect of the Capitol.
Examine primary documents and match them to the correct check that one branch exhibits on another, in this activity from the National Archives.
Explore how checks and balances might play out if your school was structured according to the Constitution in this activity from the National Constitution Center.
Search for terms related to checks and balances.
See More Podcasts in Subject Area: Social Studies
See More Themed Groupings that Contain this Podcast: Government, Revolutionary Figures