The lesson plans for this unit encourage more in-depth explorations of key concepts in American civics and government that are vitally important to our society today. This unit focuses on the way national, state, and local governments work today, not necessarily the way they worked when they were created. The second is Unit 18: Civics and Government Today, in which students return to these fundamental ideas as they learn about the characteristics of American democracy in our own times the structure of national, state, and local governments the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and the importance of media literacy. Note that this unit focuses on state and national constitutions as they were when they were created, not necessarily as they are today. This unit also introduces the concept of rights.
constitutions, beginning with the fundamental ideas that shaped the Founding Fathers’ decisions about the type of government best suited to support our liberty and prosperity. The first is Unit 6: Establishing Government, which explores the creation of both the New Hampshire and U.S. Many of these resources appear throughout the “Moose,” interwoven with the state’s history, but two units in particular focus on these subjects. “Moose on the Loose” includes numerous instructional resources on civics and government geared specifically for elementary students. “Moose on the Loose” hopes to remedy that. Although well within the grasp of children at the elementary grade levels, an introduction to these foundational principles is sadly curtailed, or even omitted, in most civics instruction today.
The material offered in “Moose on the Loose” covers not just the logistics of civics instruction but also the foundational principles that are so important to our nation’s past, present, and future. The New Hampshire Historical Society takes seriously its responsibility to offer high-quality civics resources.