Memorizations
We encourage the kids to memorize these important parts of documents and songs unique to our country. For each one passed off to a leader, they will earn a prize. Feel free to help them at home!
The Star Spangled Banner
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O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
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The Pledge of Allegiance
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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All.
A Piece of the Declaration of Independence
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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,...”
The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The Articles of the U.S. Constitution
I. Legislative Branch
II. Executive Branch
III. Judicial Branch
IV. States Relations
V. Amending the Constitution
VI. The U.S. Constitution is the Supreme Law
of the Land
VII. Ratification
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The Bill of Rights
1. Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition
2. Right to Bear Arms.
3. No quartering soldiers.
4. Right to be secure in Persons, Houses, Papers, and Effects against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures. No warrant shall issue without probable cause, oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched, or the person or thing to be seized.
5. Right to Grand Jury, no Double Jeopardy, no self-incrimination, Due Process, Eminent Domain.
6. Right to a public and speedy trial, Impartial Jury, Right to confront witnesses against you, Right to subpoena witnesses, Assistance of Counsel.
7. Protects Citizens' right of Jury Trial in Federal Court for civil cases.
8. No excessive bail or fines, no cruel or unusual punishments.
9. Enumeration. (Citizens can retain rights not listed in the Bill of Rights.)
10. Other powers reserved to the states or to the people.
Extra Memorizations
We have added bonus memorizations this year. The kids who rise to the challenge and go the extra mile will get an extra special award.
In Flanders fields
​Poem by John McCrae
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In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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​The Gettysburg Address
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Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
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Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
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Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
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The New Colossus
Poem by Emma Lazarus
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​Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
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