Chocowinity Middle School celebrates Constitution Day

Published 10:52 am Saturday, September 21, 2019

Learning lessons on civics, America’s founding documents and how the government works are all important parts of any education, and that’s exactly what students at Chocowinity Middle School did on Thursday.

Celebrating Constitution Day, the 232 anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, students at the school enjoyed a variety of special activities throughout the day, all focused on learning about American society.

Among the special activities, students from Vanessa Oden’s eighth grade CTE class had the chance to visit with District Court Judge Keith Mason, learning about the branches of government and drafting their own constitutions for the school.

“I think they need to understand the foundations of the government,” Mason said. “They need to hopefully understand that the Constitution is something that both gives power to our institutions and allows us to have our branches of government, but also places on limitations on those branches of government and protects us the citizens from abuses of the branches of government. Hopefully they’ll kind of see it as a dynamic thing that is very active in their lives.”

In addition, the school’s fifth grade students gave a special recitation in the gym that afternoon, reciting from memory the Preamble to the Constitution both through spoken word and sign language.

DELEGATES: Eighth grade students Kalee Sitterson and DeNajah Warren help draft a constitution on behalf of the students in their CTE class.

LEARNING FROM A JUDGE: Distict Court Judge Keith Mason and CMS CTE teacher Vanessa Oden watch on as students from Oden’s class prepare their own constitutions for the school.

RATIFIED: Students sign a new constitution for CMS after compromising on the articles that should govern the school.

SIGN LANGUAGE: Fifth graders recite the Preamble of the Constitution, using both words and sign language.

REPRESENTATIVE: Zymir Jennette speaks on behalf of his group, sharing the proposed articles of their constitution.

TEAMWORK AND COMPROMISE: Haleigh Tallcott prepares to hang her group’s draft of a new constitution for Chocowinity Middle School.