Investigate some crazy laws on Law Day, May 1.
Students
law, lawmaker, ordinance
In this lesson students will investigate some crazy laws that are still on the books. There must be good reasons why some of those laws were passed. What might those reasons have been?
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Note: At the above link, scroll down to page 6 to find the illustrated laws. We recommend copying this Loony Laws resource onto a transparency. Before projecting the transparency on a screen, cut off or cover the bottom part of the page that has discussion questions and a link to a site called dumblaws.com. That site includes many laws that are no longer on the books and advertising content that might be inappropriate for your students.Apparently, some of the laws illustrated on this resource are still on the books -- but one has to wonder
Why might each law have been passed?
What good reasons might there have been for making such laws?
Extend the Lesson
Have students track down additional crazy laws (see Resources below) and illustrate one law in a style that mimics that used on the Loony Laws page. Create a class book of illustrated laws. Discuss what circumstances might have led to the passage of those laws.
Resources
Note: You should preview, and perhaps hand-select, the laws your students might illustrate. Some of the laws listed
on the last resource below might not be appropriate for classroom use.
Have students
EducationWorld.com
Gary Hopkins
FINE ARTS: Visual Arts
GRADES 5 - 8
NA-VA.5-8.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.5-8.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas
NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines
GRADES 9 - 12
NA-VA.9-12.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.9-12.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas
NA-VA.9-12.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts
and Other Disciplines
LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.3 Evaluation Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills
SOCIAL SCIENCES: Civics
GRADES 5 - 8
NSS-C.5-8.1 Civic Life, Politics, and Government
NSS-C.5-8.2 Foundations of the American Political System
NSS-C.5-8.3 Principles of Democracy
GRADES 9 - 12
NSS-C.9-12.1 Civic Life, Politics, and Government
NSS-C.9-12.2 Foundations of the Political System
NSS-C.9-12.3 Principles of Democracy
See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)
For additional social studies lesson plans, see these Education World resources:
Education World®
Copyright© 2008 Education World
Originally published 04/20/2006
Last updated 03/28/2008