Students celebrate Constitution Day

Fifth-grade students at McVey Elementary School celebrated one of the most important events in our nation’s history on Sept. 17, the drafting of the Constitution. To mark the anniversary, teachers prepared an array of activities to study the historic event in a fun way, which included creating a class constitution.

Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1797, and recognizes all who have become citizens, whether by birth or naturalization. In addition to learning about this momentous document, the fifth-graders are also studying about the Revolutionary War, the Articles of the Confederacy, the formation of government and the Bill of Rights.

“The students have also been involved in their class elections, so they are really living this lesson,” added educator Joe Targove.

In Targove’s class, the students created a preamble and bill of rights for Room 109 that symbolizes respect and dignity for classroom peers, he said. The students agreed to always try their best, pay attention and avoid judging peers based on the color of their skin and country of origin. In the preamble, the students also established a “bully-free” classroom environment and promised to help one another as needed.

Once the classroom constitution was edited, each student signed the document, which symbolized the 39 men who first signed the U.S. Constitution.