Are you looking for some interesting ways to teach students about how a bill becomes a law? Look no further. This post contains everything you will need.
How a Bill Becomes a Law
This section includes websites, videos, an anchor chart, and activities to use with your students.
Activity #1 – Anchor Chart
This anchor chart simplifies the steps for a bill becoming a law.
- Have students use the anchor chart to explain the steps in sentence form.
- Ask questions such as…
- What causes a bill to end?
- When the President of the United States vetoes a bill, what happens?
- What percentages of the Senate and House are needed to override a veto?
- If one house passes a bill, what happens next?
- What are the two ways a bill can become a law?
- In which house can a bill be introduced?
- What can the President do once he receives a bill?
- Only the House has the power to —-.
Download the Google Form quiz.
Activity #2 – Sequencing Activity
Check out this online quiz. Students sequence the steps in how a bill becomes a law.
Activity #3 – Websites
The official USA.gov website contains lessons with activities for teachers to use with their students. The webpage covers the standard NCSS Standard: VI. Power, Authority, & Government. Using the activities included, students learn terms, methods, and the ins and outs of lawmaking.
The website breaks down the activities by grade level making it appropriate for 3 – 12 grades.
FirstLadies.org contains a lesson with a great schematic showing the steps of a bill becoming a law.
Scholastic provides the steps from a bill being drafted to overriding the President’s veto in easy-to-understand text.
Activity #4 – Videos
Activity #5 – Teaching US Government
Click the links to find additional resources for your US Government Unit.
Ten Interesting Facts . . .The US Constitution – This blog post contains a printable with interesting details plus free organizers on the Branches of Government and the Constitution.
Constitution Lap Book – This resource contains foldable organizers that work well as a lap book or interactive notebook.
