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.