What is Government?

Teaching 2nd-grade government was very daunting when I first looked at the standards.  They needed to know the different levels of government, as well as the difference between capital and capitol…

I was stumped as to where to begin writing government lesson plans.  My school provided a small 50-page textbook for Social Studies, which was terrible, and a curriculum map.  Basically, it was whatever I wanted to make it, so I got busy. 

My first task was to unpack the standards.  What are Local, State, and Federal forms of government?  After reading curriculum maps from multiple counties, tons of PowerPoints, and searching the web, I created my own unit. 

I kicked off these government worksheets for 2nd grade with a section called, “Meet our Leaders.”  In this part of the unit, I provide teachers the opportunity to add their own mayor and governor.  If you are in the state of Georgia, I have provided them for you!!

I then switched gears to vocabulary and taught the difference between CapitOl and CapitAl. Then I added a couple of handouts and practice pages to ensure mastery of this standard.  I also added a quiz for an informal or formal assessment.

Worksheets on Government

I added everything I used in my classroom, like a few ELA handouts that I used for morning work or for small group reading independent stations.  By combining ELA and Social Studies, I would get two for the price of one! 

I have a great text features page that includes all the necessary information they need to know about government and then add finding text features!  The students get the hang of text features after I teach this minilesson! 

I have also created an entire unit on how to teach text features to 2nd and 3rd graders! This unit is great as an introduction or as a review!

I have a second-grade unit to teach the standard and a third-grade unit.

Text Feature Lessons include:

**Lesson Plans for Nonfiction Text Features

**Book-Look Guide for Practice

**Text Features Resource Pages for Student Reference

**Interactive Notebook – Vocabulary

Related 2nd Grade Article: Historical Figures