The United States Government

I can explain major responsibilities of each of the 3 branches of government.

The Legislative Branch The Executive Branch The Judicial Branch I can explain that democracies, dictatorships

and monarchies are categories for understanding the relationship between those in power or authority and citizens

5th grade Government Standard:

Have you ever thought about who runs the government?

Or maybe: What is the government?

The government is a group of adults who make rules to help people live together peacefully.

Kind of like your parents helping to make peace with your brother’s and sister’s or your teacher trying to make peace between your class mates.

Our countries government tries to help everyone in the entire country get along and be peaceful.

Well……

President Barack Obama

One important person that you may think of when you think of the government is the President of the

United States. Actually he is a big part of the government, but he cannot do everything on his

own, so he needs other people to help him.

The United States President works at the “National” level of the government along with other men and women.

National level means the entire country of the United States.

Since the United States is so big, the president needs help at the “local” level of the government. He has someone in charge at the state level. So since we live in Ohio, we have a person in charge of the Ohio government.

The person who is in charge of Ohio is kind of like the president, but only for our state. Instead of being called president, he is called governor. The governor is in charge of keeping Ohio peaceful and protected.

Each state has their own governor.

Here is a picture of the current governor of Ohio

Since each state is so big, the governor needs help taking care of the state, so each town or city has someone to take care of it and help the governor.

This person is called the mayor. There are just about as many mayors of a state as there are towns and cities.

The National level (The entire United States) The State level (The state you live in ex.

Ohio) The Local level (the town or city you live in

ex. Akron)

So, lets review the 3 levels of government:

Now that you have learned the three levels of government, there are also 3 branches of government

The 3 Branches are:

The Executive Branch

The Legislative Branch

The Judicial Branch

The answer is the system of checks and balances!

This means that as a country we don’t want one group of people to have all of the power, so we have to have different groups to represent different views.

Why do we need 3 branches?Why can’t there just be one?

The executive branch is lead by the president.

The president is also called the “Commander in Chief” and he is responsible for the military (army, marines, coast guard, navy, seals etc…)

The president also makes sure laws are being followed

He is able to sign a law or veto a law

So… What does the Executive Branch do?

If the president signs a law it means that he wants the law to pass, but if he veto’s a law it means he wants it to fail; he does not agree with the law.

What does sign a law or veto a law mean?

The legislative branch is lead by Congress Who is Congress? The Congress in the United States is two

groups of people (the Senate and the House of representatives; who we will learn more about in another lesson)that make decisions, along with the president, about the laws of the country.

What does the Legislative Branch do?

This group of people help to pass laws Approve how the money from taxes will be

spent And… if the president does not like a certain

law and vetoes it, the Congress can go against the president and still pass the law, as long as enough people agree to it.

What is the legislative branch continued….

The only thing that I am going to tell you about the Judicial Branch, is that it is lead by the Supreme Court and federal court.

Your assignment is to research this branch and give me three more facts about it.

Here are some websites that will be helpful for this assignment.

www.congressforkids.net http://

government.mrdonn.org/powerpoints/3branches.html

What is the Judicial Branch?

Once you find the information about the judicial branch, look at more information about the other 2 branches and write a one paragraph summary comparing and contrasting the three.

I would like for your paragraph to have an introductory sentence, 5 supporting sentences and a concluding sentence. That is a total of at least 7 sentences.

The last part of your assignment