Why do you have these rights? Warm Up: As a citizen of the United States, what are your rights? What are you allowed to do? Why do you have these rights?

Activities: Take notes/discuss Bill of Rights Paintings—which painting describes which amendment?

A minor change in a document What is an amendment? A minor change in a document

Bill of Rights: The Bill of _____________ is the First 10 Amendments to the Constitution. These amendments provide a written guarantee of _____________rights. The Bill of Rights was written by James _______________. Madison based the Bill of Rights on the Virginia Declaration of Rights (written by George ____________) and the Virginia Statute for Religious freedom (written by Thomas ____________).

Virginia Declaration of Rights “All men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights…namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty…and pursuing…happiness and safety.”

Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom “Be it enacted by the General assembly, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever…”

With your table: Read over the Bill of Rights (First 10 Amendments) and discuss that each one means. Which one do you think is the most important? Least important? Number them 1-10, 1 being most important, 10 being least.

Look at your picture: What do you see? Which amendment does the picture relate to? How do you know?

Who wrote the Bill of Rights?

What is an amendment?

Name two documents that influenced James Madison when he was writing the Bill of Rights.

Who wrote the VA Declaration of Rights?

Who wrote the VA Statute of Religious Freedom?

What is a Constitution?

How many branches of government did the Constitution create?

Who is the head of the executive branch?

Acrostic Poem: Write an acrostic poem to describe the Bill of Rights: B I L Of R G H T S