Preparation

• Get your children to learn about the different types of governments by experiencing them directly. Make up a series of problems. They should be simple puzzle solving problems, appropriate for their age group. Gather a bunch of rewards as well, such as snacks, small toys or extra credit towards a grade.
  
  

Direct Experience

• Now have the students elect a leader or group of leaders to direct the puzzle solving, and the division of snacks they receive as a reward if the solve them correctly. This gives your children experience of a democracy. Next, give them more puzzles and rewards, but this time appoint one child as absolute ruler. This allows your class to experience a monarchy or dictatorship. Putting the children who have the most rewards from previous exercises in charge can let your class experience life in an oligarchy or aristocracy. Appointing representatives of the class to divide up the jobs solving puzzles and divide up the rewards shows them life under communist or socialist governments.
  
  

Reading

• Give the children works of fiction to read that are set in different times or different lands, with different forms of government. Encourage discussion about the ways in which the governments in those stories affected the lives of the characters; and how it was different from what the children themselves are used to.
  
  

Field Trips

• Take the children on field trips to government institutions, landmarks and museums. Encourage discussion about what each of these places are known for, and why.
  
  

Map Game

• Make a game of it. Place a large map of the world so that the whole class can see it. Point to different countries and ask what form of government they have. Describe features of a certain type of government and ask the children to name a country where these features can be found. For example, an answer to the question "Where can I find a monarch with powers limited by a constitution?" would be "England." An answer to "Where can I find a country ruled by a body of religious leaders?" could be "Iran" or "the Vatican." Give out small rewards to the children who do the best.