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Democracy Kids - Duckster
Grades
2 to 8tag(s): branches of government (70), congress (40), democracy (29)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a basic introduction to social studies lessons on the Houses of Congress and the judicial and executive branches by exploring the links at the bottom of this page. Encourage your students to write letters to senators or representatives after learning about their accessibility. Assign students specific government officials to research and prepare a multimedia presentation to share with the class. Have students create a Thinglink, reviewed here. This site allows users to narrate a picture. Have students create a simple online posters using PicLits (reviewed here). Rather than a traditional report, challenge students (independently or collaboratively) to create an online book using Book Creator, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Our Documents - 100 Milestone Documents - National Archives
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): civics (129), history day (38), primary sources (134)
In the Classroom
The use of primary sources in teaching has been greatly increased by our digital access to documents like these. Peruse the list of "milestone" documents and commit to using the photographs on an interactive whiteboard (or projector) when the document comes up in a lesson or discussion. For teachers who are supporting student projects for National History Day, this site also has a link to specific tips, although it appears the site has not been kept up to date with current information on individual competitions. Challenge cooperative learning groups to investigate one of the documents and create a multimedia project of their choice. Looking for some inspiration? How about having groups create a podcast using podOmatic, reviewed here. Or have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as PicLits, reviewed here. Have students narrate a photo of the document (using a FREE and LEGAL photo) with a too such as Google Drawings, reviewed here. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Americans and the Environment - National Humanities Center
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): conservation (109), ecology (118), environment (253)
In the Classroom
While this site is a little text-heavy, it is truly an excellent site for exploring the way the North American environment has been impacted by recent history. Select the time period that is appropriate to your unit, and introduce the site on the interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students explore the rest of the site on classroom computers. To ensure that they're doing more than skimming the text, Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or PicLits (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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About Illinois - State of Illinois
Grades
4 to 8In the Classroom
Share the site on your interactive whiteboard with your students to help them find portions useful for research, then allow them to explore on their own. Create a scavenger hunt for students to search the site to find facts about the state.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Maryland Kids Page - Maryland Secretary of State
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): biographies (96), maryland (7), states (128)
In the Classroom
Challenge your students to go past PowerPoint and make an online presentation using Animoto (reviewed here) or another reviewed presentation tool from the TeachersFirst Edge. Share the page with the bill-creation process on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) with students and have them compare with other states' processes. Create a scavenger hunt including information from the site and have students explore the pages to find answers. Share the site with students as a resource for state research or famous American projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Maine Secretary of State Kids' Page - Maine Secretary of State
Grades
3 to 8In the Classroom
Challenge your students to go past PowerPoint and make an online presentation using Animoto (reviewed here) or another reviewed presentation tool from the TeachersFirst Edge. Review the list of books about Maine to use as resources for Guided Reading or class read-alouds. Share the site with students when preparing state research projects. Demonstrate the Tree of Facts and challenge students to create their own Tree of Facts for the state they are researching.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mr. Donn's Social Studies - Mr. Donn
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 1920s (17), africa (162), archeology (26), china (79), civics (129), civil rights (219), civil war (145), colonial america (97), egypt (59), great depression (32), greece (47), holidays (283), immigration (85), india (34), industrial revolution (22), japan (62), mayans (32), mesopotamia (31), native americans (130), psychology (60), religions (120), renaissance (38), resources (80), rome (36), slavery (79), westward expansion (42)
In the Classroom
This is the perfect site for Social Studies and History teachers. Use this site for background information when planning lessons. Place this link on your classroom computers to provide students with safe places to research. Several topics have video clips that are perfect for showing on a projector or interactive whiteboard. If using this site for research, enhance learning by challenging students to create a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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What Does One Trillion Dollars Look Like? - PageTutor
Grades
4 to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): financial literacy (93), money (113), number sense (74)
In the Classroom
This site is perfect for demonstrating place value and exponents of 10 on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Ask students to draw each amount as they would visualize it before revealing the actual size from the site. Challenge students to change the representation used ($100 bill) to something different (popsicle sticks, bricks, etc.) to find how proportion changes.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Arizona Kid's Page - State of Arizona
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): national parks (28), native americans (130), natural resources (33), westward expansion (42)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students when working on state research projects. Display photos included on the site with your interactive whiteboard or projector when discussing Arizona, the Grand Canyon, or other areas of the state. Copy and use the coloring pages with the state seal, flag, and other images when learning about the state of Arizona. Rather than having students create a traditional research project, enhance learning by having students create a multimedia presentation using Thinglink. This site allows you to narrate a picture.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Alaska Kids' Corner - State of Alaska
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): alaska (21), animals (274), flags (18), volcanoes (62)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students when they are researching information for state reports. Have students use a mapping tool such as MapHub, reviewed here, to create a map of local landforms (with display markers featuring text, photos, and videos!), Add this to your list of resources when reading books about Alaska, such as Balto. Ask students to share their thoughts about Alaska, then share the site's common misconceptions section to see if any of your students have these misconceptions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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News English Lessons - Sean Banville
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): audio books (43), audtxt (19), diseases (59), listening (117), news (223)
In the Classroom
The articles are short and interesting, a perfect match for non-fiction reading comprehension. With so many different activities to choose from, it will be easy for the classroom teacher to differentiate. There is an mp3 audio version of each article so students can listen as they read. Assign small groups of students to present the news each week, using the interactive whiteboard to show others the country and city from which the article originated. Make the newscasting experience even more real by having students read scripts of these news stories or their own original stories using a EasyPrompter, reviewed here. Students can then go to another news source such as News for Kids, reviewed here, to see what else is happening in the news. For a project and to enhance student learning, have the small groups create a "talking map" using a site such as Zeemaps, reviewed here. This site allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location (where their article/story took place). What a fabulous way to share the article with the rest of the class!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Florida Kids Page - Florida Division of Historical Resources
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): native americans (130), states (128), symbols (19)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students researching state symbols, native americans, or Florida. For students studying Florida, challenge cooperative learning groups to create online books about one part of this website. Use a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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WordSift - Stanford University
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): dictionaries (48), reading comprehension (146), reading strategies (93), thesaurus (21), vocabulary (251), vocabulary development (102), word clouds (12), word study (58)
In the Classroom
This is a classic tool to promote "before reading" strategies and vocabulary development. Use WordSift to preview text to be used in class and define vocabulary before reading to increase reading comprehension. Have students use WordSift with different portions of text to identify key words and vocabulary for class presentations. Use WordSift to discuss different meanings of words using images presented through the site. This site isn't only for English teachers, share with Science and Social Studies teachers to use in their classrooms with reading texts in their content areas. ENL/ELL and learning support teachers will want to share this as a support for any reading assigned in regular classes. Be sure to show students how to copy/paste to WordSift texts from informational web pages and news stories on the web, as well. Share this link as a Favorite on your public page so students can use it anytime.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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TeachersFirst Brain Twisters - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 9In the Classroom
Brain Twisters work well as a whole-class activity projected on a screen or interactive whiteboard, with students pooling their knowledge to work through questions as a team. Thinking aloud together -- eliminating wrong answers, testing possibilities, debating what they know -- builds both content knowledge and test-taking strategies. Alternatively, use them in small groups with assigned roles: a moderator to guide discussion, a keyboarder to submit answers, and researchers to look up what the group doesn't know. This makes Brain Twisters a natural fit for teaching information literacy and research skills in a high-motivation context.Offer Twisters as an enrichment challenge or extra-credit option for students to complete at home -- consider giving credit simply for completing the quiz rather than for the score, since family members may want to help. The printable version and last week's answers make it easy to use Brain Twisters even without live internet access. Be sure to mark this as a favorite and share it on your class webpage.
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The 50 States - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): california (18), new york (23), states (128), texas (7)
In the Classroom
Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start your study of the 50 states. One easy use would be for testing students on knowledge of the capitals. Open the site on the interactive whiteboard or projector, and you can test students not only by state recognition on the map but with what the capitals are. State location and capitol information are not clearly stated until clicked on, so this would be a fairly easy formative assessment or review of the information.Comments
Great resource!Ladisha, VA, Grades: 9 - 12
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Learning to Give - Points of Light Institute
Grades
K to 12tag(s): african american (130), animal homes (53), animals (274), charactered (86), charts and graphs (196), colonial america (97), communities (40), data (212), diversity (55), ecology (118), environment (253), heroes (23), money (113), recycling (45)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource for all subject matters, search for subject and browse resources. Share with other teachers in your building or district including teachers of the arts. Get your students involved! Challenge cooperative learning groups to create a multimedia presentation using one of many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here discussing one of the topics at this site. Some tool suggestions are (click on the tool name to access the review): Canva Infographic Maker, Lucidpress, Powtoon, and MoocNote.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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This Day in History - A&E Television Network
Grades
5 to 12Although the videos are the highlight of this site, there is much more to explore! On the right side bar you will find text boxes to enter ANY date and choose the category. Some examples of categories include Civil War, Cold War, Presidential, Sports, Old West, World War I and II, Entertainment, and several others. On the left side bar there are even more topics and links to explore. Once you click on the subject area, specific "story topics" are provided under the subject. Both of the features on the right and left side of the site display text information, not video clips.
tag(s): 20th century (168), presidents (153), trivia (16)
In the Classroom
You can add this in your RSS reader. Why not use the RSS feature to remind you of the day's events? Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. The topics on the left and right side bars make excellent research references.For a classroom-ready activity each day to build understanding of historical events in the context of your students' prior knowledge, also try TeachersFirst's Dates That Matter. Include both links on your teacher web page for instant access by students both in and out of class. Maybe start a class wiki for your own "This Day" collection and assign student groups a day of their own. Add to it from year to year. Or have students write blog responses on class or individual blogs as they choose an event for the day from several sources and react to it.
Comments
Perfect resource for stimulating interest on a variety of topics.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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EconEdLink
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): consumers (16)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free digital lesson plans offered by this website. Useful for any economics class, regardless of age. The site includes standard criteria and images, which are helpful in preparing the lesson for class use.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Annenberg Classroom - NPR/NY Times
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): charactered (86), civil rights (219), ecology (118), radio (16), women (189)
In the Classroom
Make this link available from your teacher web page while studying the Constitution, the branches of government, and many other social studies topics. Use your interactive whiteboard or projection screen to share a video or audio clip to spark discussion on an issue or activate your lesson. Then, divide your class into teams and have a class debate about the issue. Have students prepare a pro/con wiki using links to the primary sources to support their position or create their own podcast commentaries with support for their opinions.Comments
Too many resources to even summarize. I can't wait to share this resource. CONSTITUTION ON SEPT. 17.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Kids Know Your Rights - American Library Association
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): bill of rights (39), constitution (105)
In the Classroom
Share this pdf on an interactive whiteboard or projector as part of a class discussion (great for reading comprehension in the content areas, too!). Then allow students to use it and other resources for a class debate on the pros and cons of intellectual freedom. The constitution will come to life in a context that students care about.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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