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This website offers a variety of primary source material from 18th Century America. Scenes and portraits from original newspapers, magazines, maps and writings are just as they appeared more than 250 years ago. Also a scrolling of "what happened on this day in early America" for upper elementary to 12th grade.

This site has lots of primary sources including pictures, maps, etc. that pertain to early America. This site would be great for teaching history.

This site is organized in a student-friendly format. The text is large, descriptions are concise, and the toolbar on the left side of the page helps students navigate easily. I love the inclusion of "Freedom Documents" as well as "Rare Images." The "Join or Die" propaganda from the "Rare Images" tab is also featured in our social studies text (students can make a text-to-media connection). "Pages from the Past" gives students a glimpse into colonial-era printing and publication. What an authentic experience!

The Making of America is a digital library of primary sources in American social history. The collection covers the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. The site has a subject browsing feature that makes it very easy to navigate.

This section of America's Story focuses on the Amazing Americans who have helped shape American History.  The people are categorized by their profession or what made them famous.  The biographical information for each person provides an great summary of why they were important, links to more stories, photos, and even a timeline of their life in relation to what was happening in America.  Students begin to learn about specific people in our nation's history in 3rd and 4th grade.  This site would lend itself to exploring more information about these people from the trusted source of the Library of Congress.

5th graders learn about explorers in social studies and we do a research unit in media.  This site is very cool because it has actual documents that contain personal accounts by American explorers, Indians, missionaries, traders and settlers.  I love reading the actual words from these famous pioneers from long ago.  I think it gives kids something "real" to relate to when studying history.

This site is a collection of songs from early American History, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and westward expansion after the war. This would be useful for a unit on any of those eras, especially for a music teacher, however it could be used by a classroom teacher or school librarian as well. I think listening to music from the past really helps students get a better feel for what it was like then. They may be able to picture that time and place in their mind a little clearer while listening to music they would have heard then.

This site archives early American documents, including the Declaration, Constitution, the first annual almanac, and maps. The part I like the best is a section called "How to Read a 200 Year Document." It has all kinds of frequently asked questions, such as why "s" looks like "f" in old documents. These could be really helpful for not only teachers, but students who are not used to the 17th century language.

I liked this site and the concept behind it, the site takes documents and puts together historial thinking exercises. You can be an image detective and pick a photo and the site will ask you questions and make you think about what you are looking at and draw your own conclusions. The site really uses critical thinking skills and makes students think about the documents they are looking at.

This website is a great place for students to find information and pictures about the history of our national parks.