Lesson Plan - Can a Kid Be President?

Read the Article

Get the Answer Key

Learning Objective

Students will learn the answers to commonly asked questions about U.S. presidential elections.

Content-Area Connections

Civics, U.S. History

Standards Correlations

CCSS: RI.3.1, RI.3.2, RI.3.3, RI.3.4, RI.3.5, RI.3.7, RI.3.8, RI.3.10

NCSS: Civic Ideals and Practices

TEKS: Social Studies 3.7

Text Structure

Question and Answer

1. Preparing to Read

Watch a Video
Watch the video “Newsie’s Challenge: What It Takes to Be President.” Ask: What are the requirements for becoming the U.S. president?

Newsie’s Challenge: What It Takes to Be President
Watch a video to learn what the requirements are for becoming the U.S. president.

Preview Words to Know
Project the online vocabulary slideshow and introduce the Words to Know.

  • candidate
  • campaigning


Set a Purpose for Reading
As students read, have them identify three rules about who can be the U.S. president. 

2. Close-Reading Questions

1. What is the purpose of the article?
The purpose of the article is to explain that the 2024 race to the White House has already begun and to share important facts about how Americans choose the nation’s top leader.
(RI.3.2 Main Idea)

2. What three rules for who can be president are listed in the U.S. Constitution?
The U.S. Constitution says that a person must be at least 35 years old, must have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years, and must have been born a U.S. citizen.
(RI.3.2 Key Details)

3. Share two facts you can learn from the sidebar, “Celebrate Presidents’ Day.”
Sample response: From this sidebar, you can learn that more U.S. presidents have been born in Virginia than in any other state. You can also learn that the U.S. has had 46 presidents so far.
(RI.3.7 Text Features)

3. Skill Building

FEATURED SKILL: Text Features
Use the skill builder “Election Words” to deepen understanding of key election-themed vocabulary from the article.
(RI.3.4 Domain-Specific Vocabulary)

Differentiate & Extend

Multilingual Learners
Differentiate for multilingual learners by pointing out the different ways the verb run is used in the article. Students are probably familiar with the word’s primary meaning—“to move along quickly using your legs.” But in this article, the verb is used to mean “to take part in an election” (“run for president”) and “to be in charge of something” (“run the nation’s government”).


Writing Extension  
Have students write a paragraph about whether they would like to run for president. 


Enrichment Activity
Have students list additional questions they have about the election and the role of the U.S. president. Send your class’s questions to the editors at scholasticnews3@scholastic.com. We’ll use them to plan future articles!

Text-to-Speech