Everything for the three levels of government: study cards, the traps to dodge, a practice quiz at three levels — Foundation, On-Level, and Challenge — and a lab where you sort, label, put in order and read a real source. Work here, or print it and use a pencil — both count.
Your town. It has a mayor, and a council that writes the rules for the town.
Three levels, each inside the next: local, state, national. Each has a leader AND a group that writes the laws — mayor and council, governor and General Assembly, president and Congress. Before you answer any question, ask which level it is about.
Two things people get wrong
⚠️People often think…
Chicago is the capital of Illinois, because it is the biggest city.
Springfield is the capital. Biggest and capital are two different jobs, and plenty of states split them the same way — New York has Albany, California has Sacramento.
Springfield governs. Chicago is biggest.
⚠️People often think…
A leader makes the laws.
The leader signs and carries them out; a GROUP writes and votes on them. Council, General Assembly, Congress. That split is on purpose — nobody gets to write a law alone.
Leaders sign. Groups write and vote.
Worth knowing cold
Who is who at each level
Three rows. The leader on the left, the lawmakers on the right — and neither one works without the other.
LocalA mayor leads; a city council writes the ordinances. Parks, police, garbage, local streets.
StateA governor leads; the Illinois General Assembly writes the state laws. Schools, driver’s licenses, state highways.
NationalA president leads; Congress writes the federal laws. Money, mail, the military, and anything crossing state lines.
Which level, who decides, how to take part
1Watch one
There is a pothole on your street. Which level do you call?
Ask how far the problem reaches: one street in one town.
It does not cross into another state, so it is not national.
It is not a state highway either — it is a town street.
So: local. Match the size of the problem to the size of the government. ✓
2Do one with me
Fill in who does what.
The capital of Illinois is
The leader of a state is called the
Printing money is handled at which level?
💬One sentence, then you move on
Why do we have three levels instead of one?
3Try one
Who writes the laws for the state of Illinois?
I want a hint first
A town has a council and the nation has Congress. Illinois has something with “General” in the name.
Where this goes
Where this lives
Knowing who to call about a streetlight, understanding why your school follows state rules, seeing why a national holiday closes the post office but not the corner store.
What this feeds
Next unit is money, markets and choices — the other thing every level has to decide about.
One card at a time — tap “Show me” to check yourself, then Next. Start at Foundation; when those feel easy, climb.
Helpful Hints
🪜 Three levels — smallest to biggest
Local (your town) → State (Illinois) → National (the United States). Each level has a leader, a group of lawmakers, and its own jobs.
Mayor · Governor · President. Council · General Assembly · Congress.
🤝 The whole topic in one idea
People choose their leaders, the leaders make rules for a place, and the rules come with services everyone shares. Every question is really asking: which level, who decides, and how can a citizen take part?
Which level? Who decides? How do I take part?
⚠️ Traps the test loves
Chicago is the biggest city in Illinois — the capital is Springfield.
The mayor of Springfield is not the governor. Same city, two different governments.
Money, mail and the military are always national — no town or state has its own.
Leaders don’t make laws alone: the council, the General Assembly and Congress do the writing and voting.
A citizen has rights AND responsibilities — a question that asks for both wants both.
🗺️ Who does what — the chart
Level
Leader
Lawmakers
Jobs
Local
Mayor
City council
streets, parks, library, police, fire
State
Governor
General Assembly
driver’s licenses, state highways, school rules, state parks
National
President
Congress
money, the army, the mail, other countries
Roads and schools are shared by all three.
🎯 How the test will ask
A problem to sort — “who fixes the pothole?” (the level whose name is in the thing: your street → local).
A leader to match — “who leads Illinois?” (governor; the mayor leads a town, the president the country).
A citizen’s move — “what could you do?” (vote, speak at a meeting, write, petition, volunteer).
‘We the People’ — “what does it mean?” (the people give the government its power).
✅ Before the test, can you…
Name the leader and the lawmakers at each of the three levels?
Sort ten jobs into local, state and national?
Say where Illinois’s government meets, and why that isn’t Chicago?
List four ways a citizen can take part before they are old enough to vote?
Explain what taxes pay for, in one sentence?
Pick your level
Look back at anything you missed — the hint that appeared is exactly what to reread tonight.
How sure did you feel?
Workshop
Work like a citizen: sort who does what, label the three levels of government, put an Illinois law in order, then read the Preamble line by line.
Your practice never leaves this device. There is no account and no sign-in. Your work is saved in this browser only, and you can erase it whenever you want.
Your practice record — saved on this device
This is your record of the module on screen — it stays here and goes nowhere. Independent means you got it right on the first tap; supported means you got it after the explain-and-retry, or marked ‘I had it’ on a revealed answer. Both count, and neither is a grade. If your teacher asks, copy the row or show them this screen.
Date
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Topic
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Level
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Independent
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Supported
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Hints used
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Cards studied
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Lab
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Traps met
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Explained in own words
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Confidence
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The answer key is for a teacher: it prints only from here, for the unit on screen. Print the study packet prints the study pages and a blank quiz — never the answers.