5 Ways to Celebrate Constitution Day with Your Students

Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787. This historic document laid the foundation for the American government and established the framework for our nation’s laws, principles, and system of checks and balances.

Constitution Day is a perfect opportunity for students to explore the significance of the United States Constitution and what it means to be a citizen. To make the day meaningful and memorable, here are five easy ways to celebrate Constitution Day with your students.

Work together as a class to write a class constitution with shared rules and responsibilities that everyone agrees to follow. Your class constitution could contain:

• A short preamble to explain the purpose of your class constitution
• A list of privileges and rights students have at school, like:
  • The right to learn
  • The right to feel safe
  • The right to ask questions and participate
• A list of individual responsibilities, like:
  • Show respect to others
  • Come to class prepared and ready to learn
  • Listen when others are speaking

Your class constitution is also a great place to agree on your class policies and expectations for academic integrity, conflict resolution, homework, and classroom behavior.

Bonus tip: Make sure to ratify the document by having everyone — including you — approve and sign the class constitution. Then, virtually sign the United States Constitution together here.

Making a class constitution together builds community and deepens students’ understanding of democratic thinking and civic responsibility, making it a great way to set classroom expectations while celebrating Constitution Day.

The Constitution is a crucial piece of United States history that every student should read in their academic career. However, its language can be difficult for younger students to understand. For this reason, there are many kid-friendly, simplified summaries of the Constitution available online that you can print and distribute or read aloud together as a class.

The Constitutional Services Project offers a free-access United States Constitution for Kids, which includes the original text, kid-friendly adaptations, and historical background and context for each article of the Constitution.

Bonus tip: Make your read-through of the Constitution more engaging with a scavenger hunt or activity worksheet.

Reading from the Constitution together is a great way to build reading skills with civics texts, tie the Constitution into what you’re learning in social studies, and recognize Constitution Day.

There are many rich symbols that communicate important ideals and values of the United States. As you learn about the Constitution, you can have students draw, color, or paint symbols of the United States, like the bald eagle, the Liberty Bell, or the U.S. flag.

Learning with symbolism can enhance conceptual understanding and help students learn to think abstractly. Understanding important historical symbols can help students connect what they learn about the Constitution to the privileges of being an American.

Bonus tip: Display the art in your classroom to showcase what your students have learned.

For this activity, assign students to an article or an amendment of the Constitution. In groups, students can decorate posters, create a short reenactment, or write a story that summarizes an important part of the Constitution.

Students can then teach each other by presenting what they have learned to the rest of the class.

Within your Studies Weekly Online account, you can find hundreds of relevant primary source images, informational videos, and engaging articles to help you celebrate Constitution Day.

Simply log in to your Studies Weekly Online account and use the search tool to find articles and media about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, American History, and much more.

Each of these five activities can be a quick and simple way to teach the important history of one of our nation’s most integral founding documents. Learning this history helps our students see their role in our democracy and prepares them for a life and future of civic involvement and responsibility. We hope you enjoy these activities as you celebrate our nation’s history!