Create Your Own Country- Government Terms

[Mandolyn]

This is a really fun lesson if you have creative students.

I tell them many times that this can be fun or boring, it depends on if they want to have fun or not.

I go through some words relating to government on the powerpoint. I make sure that they know most of the words. After we go over the vocab I put them in groups and have them create their own country following my guidelines. I give them a black piece of paper and have them use that to create a poster for it. The last slide of the powerpoint has the guidelines.

I have them present their countries to the class and they vote on the country they like the most.

Some countries I have had:

Handsome Boy Island- It is illegal to be ugly, short or mean to girls
It is legal for one woman to have many husbands

Harry Potter's Country- Main export is magic, school is mandatory for students but only for 3hrs a day where they study magic only.

[zachmokpo]

This sounds like a really awesome idea. I'm hopefully going to try it out next week!

[vitamin-d]

I think this is a good idea too.
I'm using it to do something similar. My students are rather low performers so I think the PowerPoint would be a little complex for them. Also, my TV is broken with no schedule to be fixed!
Instead, I've made a task worksheet (that I will explain before giving out with 6 columns on the board). It may be a good idea to laminate it and hand out one to each team, so they can be used again and again.
I've attached it. I hope it's useful.

 

[stevenmayers]

I love this idea, I'm definitely gonna use it thanks!

[stellaface]

great idea! i used it during my afterschool class

[estherk29]

this sounds like a really fun idea! thanks a lot

[CellarDoor]

Has anyone used this lesson?  I see lots of "Thanks for the materials!" posts, but not a lot telling if this lesson went well, needed modification, gave students difficulty or whatnot.  Looks interesting, so I'm just trying to find out a little more about it.  Thanks!

[shhowse]

I used a slightly modified version for my all girls class. Admittedly the first part of the class is a bit of a bore, since I wanted to teach them the vocabulary (monarchy, democracy...) for making their countries. Plus, I try to do it as an open class discussion, asking them leading questions so they will explain the concepts to me, but they almost never care to participate in this part, so it ends up being me lecturing to them. Then when we get to the team worksheet to actually create the country they do alright. Some of them could care less but other have a good time and come up with some interesting or really funny ideas. At the end I have the teams present their ideas to me, and I make sure they use full sentences to describe their country.

I'm still looking for ways to improve this lesson and get them more interested.

[acekoom]

thanks for all these ideas Im getting some neat things to use

[jbaile]

Hey,

So my take on this lesson is I'm doing it over two classes

First class I made a ppt to introduce terms, I also added natural and man made wonders. Then a fill in the blank worksheet. I used a mario bomb game for a treat at the end.

The second class I'll do a ppt review, and have them make a travel poster for their own country in groups. There will be a worksheet, what political systems do you use? what's your population? etc etc then I'll have them create their poster and present.

Here is the first ppt and worksheet, still working on the second but I'll upload it when I'm done. So far this is a really smooth lesson.

[jbaile]

Loving part 2 of this lesson. Most kids are really into it. Had one kid i haven't heard all semester present his poster to the class -joy-. I found the more animated I was when giving instructions and the more I stressed this can be fun the better results I got.

Here's part 2

[ross6520]

I've used this lesson for 1st and 2nd grade high school students. It's a perfect level for 2nd grade, but can be quite a challenge for the 1st grade. The first half of the lesson is boring, with me talking to them about the different vocabulary. Part of me tries to get through it quickly, but I'd advise against that because most of it is new vocab and they'll just end up lost. So, spend the time going through the boring stuff, provide funny examples, then emphasize that they should have fun with it

[ihateroses]

AHH this has so much win!!!

I'm thinking of going all out and maybe making it a 3 week thing with my middle school students.

First week will be learning the vocabulary and that awesome bomb game (thanks jbaile).

Second week we will review all the vocab and begin planning out their new countries in groups. If there is time they will start their posters.

 Third week they will create the posters and I will hang them up in my classroom. I think I might give all my co-teachers ten stickers and they will rate the posters when the kids aren't around by putting stickers on the ones that include all the components and are most creative. Winning poster gets a prize.

Thank you Mandolyn and jbaile