What are the qualifications for being President (or Senator, or Representative, or Justice of the Supreme Court) of the United States? The Constitution outlines the qualifications needed to become the President, Senator, Representative or member of the Supreme Court. Terms of Office. How long does the President serve? The President is elected for a 4 year term and may be re-elected for another 4 year term. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution limited the President to serving two terms. | |
Your Tree of Government Project is due today. The test is tomorrow.
Have you included names and photos for the members of President Obama's Cabinet? Click here if you need that information.
Have you included the names and photos for the members of the Supreme Court? Click here if you need that information.
Have you included the three men that represent the State of Vermont in Congress? Click here if you need that information.
Each branch of government has specific powers and duties. You were asked to color code those powers and place them on the tree hanging from the appropriate branch.
Have you included names and photos for the members of President Obama's Cabinet? Click here if you need that information.
Have you included the names and photos for the members of the Supreme Court? Click here if you need that information.
Have you included the three men that represent the State of Vermont in Congress? Click here if you need that information.
Each branch of government has specific powers and duties. You were asked to color code those powers and place them on the tree hanging from the appropriate branch.
The three branches of government each have specific powers. The Legislative Branch writes laws, the Executive Branch enforces (executes) laws, and the Judicial Branch judges laws. The powers act as a system of checks and balances that prevents any branch from becoming too powerful. For example, the President can make a treaty, but only Congress can ratify (approve) the treaty. Although the President is the "Commander in Chief" and leads the armed forces, it is only Congress that can "Declare War".
Our government is divided into three branches. (Legislative, Executive & Judicial) This project asks you to create a poster representing the Three Branches of Government. You'll need to create a poster of a tree trunk with three branches. Open this document and save your own copy as "Tree of Government". You'll be attaching photos of the people associated with each branch and placing leaves on the tree which represent the powers of each branch. This project has many parts. (research, art and construction) It will take you most of the week. (The size of your poster is limited, so it is important for you to find, resize and save photos you find on the internet into a file before you print.) (Before you actually glue photos or information onto your poster, you should create a draft or “sloppy copy” to arrange the information artistically and accurately.) Step 1: Start by finding photos for the 3 Government Buildings that act as the home for each branch. (The Capitol Building, The White House, and the Supreme Court) Step 2: Find the names and photos for the people connected to each branch. (You’ll need to size the pictures so they fit inside the portrait rectangles.) The Legislative Branch writes the laws. The Capitol Building in Washington D.C. has two wings - known as the House and Senate. There are 100 Senators in Congress. Each state sends two. Who are the two Senators from Vermont? (Find their names and photos) There are 435 members in the House of Representatives. The population of each state determines how many Representatives each state gets. Because Vermont has a small population, we send only one Representative to Washington D.C.. Who is Vermont’s member to the House of Representatives? (Find his name and photo) The Executive Branch is led by the President. It is the President’s job to “execute” or carry out the laws. He is assisted by the Vice President and the members of the President’s Cabinet (known as Secretaries). Who is the President? Vice President? and the members of the President’s Cabinet? (hopefully you’ll remember writing your persuasive letter to Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew about the new $10.00 bill) (The Cabinet includes the heads of 15 executive departments — the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Attorney General.) Search for members of President Obama’s Cabinet. https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabineta The Judicial Branch is known as the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court determines if laws are “Constitutional” or legal. The Supreme Court consists of 1 Chief Justice and 8 Associate Justices. Justices are not elected to office, but appointed by the President. There is no term limit to the number of years they can serve. (Justice Anthony Scalia died in February 2016 after serving 28 years on the court - So there are currently 7 Associate Justices. President Obama is facing a political battle as he attempts to appoint a replacement.) Who are the current Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court? Step 3: Each branch has specific powers. For this step in the activity you’ll need 3 colors. Red for Legislative Branch powers, Blue for Executive Branch powers, and Green for Judicial Branch powers The powers granted to each branch of the Federal Government are written in the boxes on the worksheet. Color code each box to show which branch of the government has the specific power listed. You’ll need to google the information or study a copy of the Constitution. | Click to play the Tree of Government Game courtesy of Mr. Donn |