How to address violence in the news with your kids.
Introduction to the 1st Amendment
1 Hook/Attention Getter

The teacher will instruct students to get on their Schoology accounts and go to their social studies course. The teacher will ask students to reply to the discussion question posted and then reply to two other students.
After all the students have posted, the teacher and students will have a classroom discussion. The teacher will reflect the students' posts on the board.
Students will get on their Schoology account and go to their social studies course. They will reply to the scenario posed: "Imagine that you were to come to school one day and half of your favorite library books had been burned by the principal. Imagine all Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, and many of your favorite books were gone forever. How would you feel? How would you react?"
After they respond to the the scenario, they are to respond to two other students' posts.
2 Direct Instruction and Guided Practice


The teacher will show an introductory teacher-made Animoto video on the five freedoms of the First Amendment: https://animoto.com/play/GL2q1RnJ6rLSpQg5Q7tG0w
Then, the teacher will have the students login to Nearpod and follow along and interact with the presentation. The Nearpod presentation with explain all five of the freedoms granted in the First Amendment. Throughout the presentation, there will be "checkpoints" in which students are required to respond.
Students will watch the short video.
During the Nearpod presentation, students are required to engage in some of the checkpoints. For example, some checkpoints include:
- Poll: Do you think it is good to have a separation of church and state?
- Draw: What do you think freedom of petition means? (Give an example).
- Write: How would your life be different if you did not have the freedom to assemble?
3 Closure

The teacher will have the students get out a scrap piece of paper and the students are to write down three things they learned from that day.
Snowball fight!
The students will get out a scrap piece of paper and write down three things they learned from that day. They will then crumple up their paper and throw it across the room. Students then find a "snowball" and read it. The teacher calls on random students to read their "snowball" to the class.