Three Branches of Government Graphic Organizer

All 11 organizers

The three branches 4

Branch by branch: three boxes and a why One wide box for each branch, and a box at the foot for why the Constitution divides the power.
One branch on a page A closer look at one branch: who is in it, its main job, the checks it has on the other two and the checks they have on it, with a box for the article of the Constitution that sets it up.
Sideways chart: legislative, executive, judicial The nine boxes on a page turned sideways, for longer answers.
Three branches of government graphic organizer: who, what, checks A column for each branch, legislative, executive and judicial, crossed by three rows: who is in it, what it does and how it checks the other two.

Checks and balances 3

Checks and balances organizer Six boxes, one for each direction a check can run: legislative on executive, legislative on judicial, and so on round all three branches.
Three articles, three branches Article I, Article II and Article III printed down the side, with a box for the branch each one sets up and a box for who holds its power.
Which branch? Twelve statements to tick Twelve powers and facts, each with a box to tick for the legislative, the executive or the judicial branch. Four belong to each.

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Short sheets 2

Three branches exit slips, two to a page Half sheets with a cut line: a box for each branch, to write its job in one sentence at the end of a lesson.
Three jobs to draw: which branch does each? Three boxes on a sideways page, each headed with a job. Sketch who does the job, then write the name of the branch on the lines.

Sample and answer key 2

Sample three branches chart, filled in All nine boxes of the opening chart written in for the federal government of the United States.
Which branch? Answer key The Which branch? chart with the right box marked in every row.

How this list was compiled: Our own layouts and wording; no publisher's organizer is copied. Who is in each branch, what each does and how each checks the others were checked against Articles I, II and III of the Constitution in the transcript published by the National Archives, the page Branches of the U.S. government at USA.gov, and the Wikipedia articles Separation of powers under the United States Constitution and State governments of the United States, read October 13, 2026. Licence: own work

How it works

The federal government of the United States is easier to study as a grid than as three separate lists. This three branches of government graphic organizer lines the branches up, so a student can read across a row and compare.

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Fill the chart one row at a time

Start with who is in each branch: the first sentence of Articles I, II and III of the Constitution names who holds each power. Add the jobs next. Leave the bottom row until both are in, because a check only makes sense once students know what the other branch does.

Then go round all six checks

The checks and balances organizer asks for a check in every direction. A student who knows only the veto has five boxes left to find, which makes it a good second lesson.

The chart is for the federal government. Every state has three branches of its own, with a governor leading the executive.
Judicial review is not written in the Constitution. The Supreme Court established it in Marbury v. Madison in 1803.

Questions and answers

What are the three branches of government?

The legislative, the executive and the judicial. In the federal government of the United States, Congress makes the laws, the President and the rest of the executive branch carry them out, and the Supreme Court and other federal courts decide what they mean.

Why are there three branches of government?

So that no individual or group has too much power. Each branch has its own job, and each can respond to the acts of the other two. That ability is the system of checks and balances.

What are examples of checks and balances?

The President can veto a bill passed by Congress. Congress can override the veto with two thirds of each chamber, and the Senate confirms or rejects the judges a President nominates. The courts can overturn a law that violates the Constitution.

Which article of the Constitution sets up each branch?

Article I sets up the legislative branch, Article II the executive and Article III the judicial. They are the first three of the seven articles.