📜
Grade 4 Social Studies · World 4: A New Government · Level 31
We the People
Explain popular sovereignty and consent of the governed.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 31
- The Constitution begins with three powerful words: We the People. Not we the kings, and not we the states.
- Those words mean that the government's power comes from the people. This idea is called popular sovereignty, and it's also called consent of the governed.
- The opening is called the Preamble. It lists the reasons for the Constitution: a better union, justice, peace at home, defense, the common good, and liberty.
- The plan had to be ratified, which means approved officially, by nine states. Georgia was the fourth state to do it, in January 1788, with every delegate in favor. The new government began in 1789.
- We the People didn't yet mean everyone. Enslaved people and most women had no say. Like the Declaration, it was a promise later Americans fought to make true.
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:
- SS4CG1.b — "We the People" from the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution as a reflection of consent of the governed or popular sovereignty