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This website provides current as well as historical video and audio artifacts. It also provides photos and illustrations of historical events and people. For example, under Prohibition, students can view the newspaper headlilne making alcohol illegal, as well as photos of events and influential people in that era. Many other historical topics are covered. This would be a useful tool in History or maybe even a Literature class.

The primary sources at this site are usually viewed in video form in clips from the various PBS documentary programs. Suggest you search like so, "primary sources" + "grade 3", inserting what ever grade you need. PBS Teachers can be accessed from this site, too, to search for good lesson plans for grades 1-12 related to primary sources. The search here can be narrowed down by grade level. This site is good for teaching about people, places, events, animals, inventions, and cultures.

I love the way this site is arranged by continents.  When doing research on countries with elementary students (3rd grade), they need information that is authentic, but also easy to grab.  One of our 3rd grade standards in Elkhorn is to learn the continents and land forms.  We expand this into a research project where each child chooses a country.  I believe 3rd grade students would be able to navigate this site.

This is a great, easy to navigate site.  It includes many aspects that would enhance our 3rd grade curriculum, such as communities, branches of the government, and how laws are made.  It puts these in an easy to read format, and if you have struggling readers or vise versa, they can read the corresponding section from a different grade level.

Smithsonian Folkways introduces cultures from around the world through the language of music.  Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian created to capture music "of the people, by the people, for the people".  The Tools for Teaching dropdown menu allows educators to find lessons, workshops, and more.  The lessons are pinpointed on a map and can be selected specifically by region.  The lessons vary for grade levels, but are primarily designed for 3rd and up.  Students begin learning about world history and specific countries in 6th grade.  Smithsonian Folkways would allow students to understand the culture in which they are studying through another viewpoint and language - music.

PBS Teachers is a portal that provides preK-12 educational resources that include thousands of lesson plans, teaching activities, on-demand video assets, and interactive games and simulations that correlate to state and national educational. The site allows its user an advanced search option to fine tune their search for specific lessons by grade level, subject, and resource request (i.e.) lesson plans, video, interactive, slideshow. For educators, the site also provides a unique opportunity to subscribe and join different educator discussion forums as well as theme based theme-based widgets containing links to high-quality activity packs, resources, and activities for multiple grade levels.

Scholastic.com is a gateway with an overabundance of activities for both teacher and student. Scholastic provides easy to navigate tabs for locating resources and tools, strategies and ideas, student activities, and books and authors by grade levels (Pre-K-12). The choices are filtered by grade, subject, and activities to effectively narrow down the user's search (i.e.), math, social studies, reading, sports, special education, language arts and animals. Once the user has selected the necessary discipline, they are able to use interactive and engaging web and whiteboard activities as well as a variety of lesson plans that are geared toward the 21st Century learner.

This section of America's Story helps learners gain a brief insight into each state.  There is a summary of how the state entered statehood, as well as some key information.  The image that appears when a state is clicked on is the state flag, state capital, state flower, and another image associated with the state.  There are also links to other stories about the state at the bottom and on the side of the page.  Students begin learning about their own state in 4th grade and more of the country in 5th grade.  This site provides a good overview of the state with primary source images and documents.

America's Story provides a great overview of American History in a simplified, easy-to-read manner.  The site is divided into five sections for easy navigation and to help users be able to identify what they need.  Students could use the See, Hear, and Sing section to understand the history of cartoons, children's songs, and various voice recordings.  The audio clips that are provided are directly from the Library of Congress and provide authentic learning experiences for students in second grade through 5th grade.

Students who are working their 4th grade research standard- Inventions unit would be able to find excellent primary sources in the links connected with famous inventors. Some famous inventors featured on this site are Alexander Graham Bell, Emiline Berliner, and Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Grade level 1- 3 grade. Students may research plants and animals, people, places, history and government, world religions, science and math, sports and hobbies and arts. Science projects, games and activities engage students learning.

This is a God-send for science and social studies classes. The visualizations and animations are very clear and easily navigable for both students and teachers. This movement supports comprehension of complex topics. Among other things, they illustrate Earth's movement from space, multiple representatives of a single place and models of molecules. 

This source provides documents and data on geography, astronomy, and science related subjects. It has a wide range of written and visual information for students. A great resource for 8th grade earth science.

This site provides primary sources with lots of topics for research. Students can browse through historic newspapers, old photographs, film, sound recordings, and more. Some of the topics include American history, maps and geography, religion and philosophy, and sports and leisure. There are even short webcasts that are very informative.

"The Library's mission is to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity forthe benefit of the American people." http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Library of Congress site was designed to support Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people. This site allows its users to search collections that include: American memories, print and photography, historic newspapers, preforming arts, veteran's history, sound recordings, film, maps, and manuscripts. Users can access and research this information via digital collections (i.e.) podcast, websites, iTunes or they can search the library catalogs that will prompt them to do a basic search or guided search to ensure they are locating the correct information

Great site for government class at all levels. The text and history of the documents make it an in depth study of whatever topic is picked. Our American Government teachers could make use of this site for serious sources and for preparing trivia follow up. Lots of possibilities with this site.

This website can be used for students of all ages. Information is grouped by grade levels, and aligns with many standards. Students can learn about citizenship, our rights, branches of government, historical documents, among many other government related topics.

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!

I can really relate to this article because when I taught 5th grade, students needed to identify primary and secondary sources.  We had many discussions because this can be a confusing topic (not only for 5th graders).

For students studying the Civil War, this is a great resource that details two communities, one in the North and one in the South. Through newspapers, letters, diaries, maps, and census and tax records, students can examine what life was like in this community and how war affected both sides, sometimes in unforeseen ways. This website would probably work better for high school students, but the information can be used for grades 7th and 8th also.

For students studying World War II, this website offers cartoons from the 1940's created by Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. Copies of his original drawings or clippings from the newspapers help paint a portrait of happenings at the time in the political, military, and civilian realms. Good for students grades 5-12 for extrapolating meaning for illustrations.

This is the history page for the local branch of the Weather Service. It has photos of the various locations throughout the area, both current and past. Then there are some links and information at the bottom of the page. This would be great for the fourth grade when they begin their tornado units in the Spring.

This site has some great local photos. It really documents the development of the Omaha area and various events throughout Omaha's history. It would be a great place to have fourth grade browse for local history.

I had to send this straight to 5th grade teachers in our district.  What a fun and valuable way to teach the difference between primary and secondary sources.  This is a clear and concise teaching of a topic that is very difficult for some students to comprehend.