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Fun Constitution Review Activities!

How do you review the Constitution with your middle and high school students? I've tried many different methods over the years. I'm excited to share my top 3 review activities with you!

#3 Mazes are a tool I use with students to review material. Maze activities are great to use with kids on sub days because they don't require any set-up or a lengthy explanation. My middle school students love solving puzzles and mazes and are often thoroughly engaged while working on them. 

If you plan to use mazes or puzzles with your students, make sure you have several options available. (I provide students with high, medium, and medium-low difficulty versions.)

#2 I call this next review activity my "Inside/Outside Circle Review." I create a large double circle in my classroom with desks paired up (facing one another). I hand out four question cards to every student sitting in the outer ring of the circle. For round #1, kids sitting in the outer circle ask the questions. The kids sitting on the inside of the circle rotate around the circle in 1-minute increments. (I am the timekeeper.) After the kids return to their original seats, we switch sides. I hand out new questions.  Kids on the inside of the circle ask the questions and the kids on the outside answer the questions and move around the circle.  Kids keep track of their own points. (1 point for every correct answer.)

This is a fast-paced (and often loud) review activity. Despite its simplicity, my students love it! I have been using this activity for many years.

#1 If you're not familiar with hexagonal thinking, it's a way for students to organize their thinking visually. In addition, hexagonal thinking promotes deep thinking about a topic as students both organize content into categories and build connections between different ideas. 

I use hexagonal thinking as a review and assessment tool in my Civics, History, and Geography courses.

Here's a quick summary of what you're seeing here: Five groups have been given envelopes with several dozen hexagonal cards and an instruction card. (The hexagonal cards have names, dates, events, and vocabulary printed on them.) I spend several minutes at the beginning of class explaining the instructions before I broke the kids up into groups. 

Once in their groups, students place all of their hexagonal cards face up. Next, students sort their cards into categories. Then, they started building connections among the cards. Many of the cards have multiple connections.  Students discuss which cards have the strongest connections and place them accordingly.

I give my students about 30 minutes to complete the activity. I tell them their goal is to use as many cards as possible in the time allotted. If students needed to look up a term, I allow them to do so.

Constitution & Bill of Rights Hexagonal Thinking Review





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