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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.

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.

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence or FREE, is a U.S. Department of Education website that complies free teacher resources from dozens of federal agencies.  Subjects range from: arts and music, history and social studies, health, language arts, math, and science. 

Harvard provides web-accessible collections consisting of journals, manuscripts, government documents, microform, music scores, and recordings. There is a great deal of information through the Harvard Libraries both online and in person. 

This resource for teachers and students has lots of information. The section for educators offers an educator's corner as well as links to various sites. Students can identify with K-5, or 6-8. They can research information about arts, computers, careers, math, money, government, health, science, and social studies. There are also links to games and activities and YouTube videos.

Kids.gov: The Official Kids' Site of the U.S. Government is a portal for students who are learning about the U.S. government; specifically in the disciplines of math, computers, money, science, social studies, or the arts (music, reading/writing, and art). The site is geared for three specific audiences: K-5, 6-8, and educators and provides over 2,000 web pages from government agencies, schools, and educational organizations that emphasize federal, state, military sites. This site is easy to navigate and has a "Hot Topics" tab that provide links to The Constitution, kids.gov YouTube channel, activities and games, American history, state websites, and the different branches of government. All of these sites make it easy for both student and educator to explore and learn.

Digital History has documents and photos that cover most of the topics taught in American History. Students can search by category or use the online modules that are arranged by topic. The modules include primary sources such as photos and documents. Also included in the modules are a fact sheet, website recommendations, and other books and films that have to do with the topic. An especially fun part of the site is the "You Choose the Headline" feature, which allows students to choose an event from a list and see the actual newspaper headline from that day.

This site is one of my favorites.  It is one of those sites that is packed with so much interest that you don't want to stop exploring.  The set up is very appealing and the appearance of the site is beautiful.  The images, accounts, exibitions and multimedia are so rich and authentic.  There is so much here: guides for teachers, interactive timeline, historical music and more.  This is a must see if you teach social studies.

Digital History offers many sources for teachers and high school students. A section of primary sources that include historic newspapers, documents, court cases, and other sources are available. Visual, multimedia, and interactives are available to enrich student's learning and research process.

This search page can help you find all of the Smithsonian Institution's primary sources for your topic. Whether your topic is a culture, place or person, this search page with pull up photos, documents, paintings, and photographs of objects, such as jewelry, flags, musical instruments, tools, clothing, etc. Easy enough for even 3rd graders to use to find primary sources for research on historical sites, cultures, like Native Americans, & famous people.

Excellent starting point for Shakespeare research. This site also provides links to sites with images of rare books, manuscripts, photographs and music.

This website provides different audio clips year by year from the 20th century. The clips range from songs popular from a particular year to president's speeches. The site pairs the headlines of the year with audio. This website would be great for a look at history or a comparison of music over the years.

Civil War Primary Documents, Personal Diaries, Journals, Letters, Cartoons, Art, Images, Poetry, Literature, & Music.  

This is a great resource for teachers from the Federal Government. There are topics in every field from arts and music to U.S. time periods. There are animations, photos, primary documents, and videos. Students could take a tour of a cell in animation, make comparisons using photos, read letters and journals of famous Americans, and watch videos about lava. There are lots of resources available for free.

This site is interactive with options to research famous Americans, learn about events in the past, learn about the different states, and even listen to old songs and video clips. I watched a video of a gymnastic routine in 1894. They called it "Early Break Dancing". This site has appealing visuals and is easy to maneuver. There are also questions that engage the learner. I think this would be a fun site for students.

The Library of Congress: America's Story from America's Library is designed to allow students to have fun with history while learning at the same time. The site provides five specific categories that allow the user to search by people, era, American pastimes and celebrations, and music and entertainment. The site promotes learning through games, trivia questions, true/false quizzes, and links that spark curiosity. It is easy to navigate and designed for all level of learners in elementary school.

I LOVE this website for my younger students - and older kids can have fun with it also. It is bright and active - but has tons of information on American history that is a little off the beaten path.

This would be a great site for more elementary aged students, there's a lot of good information but not enough to overwhelm younger kids. You can look at profiles of different famous people, get information on the states, look at different time periods and also look at games, hobbies and music, which would probably appeal to kids. One feature I thought was unique was where you could enter your birthday and it would bring up information for that date.

A great website to introduce young students to the world of non-fiction and primary source material. The website is colorful and easy to navigate. Students can learn about a variety of people, places and events in American history.

Not only does this site have primary sources in text, audio, video, and images, but also, silent movies, archived web pages, historical software, and animation/cartoons. Grades 1-12 could easily find interesting primary sources for their projects. Students will enjoy an occasional old cartoon, like Why We Have Elections, that teaches about the election process, and can be taught about primary sources, too.

The Louisiana Digital Library features digital collections of maps, manuscripts (letters, diaries, etc.), images/photos, video/audio recordings, newspapers and more. Collections can be accessed by topic, institution, media format, geographic focus, and time period. The time period collection includes a great visual time line with prominent historical events featured for easy acquisition. This would be useful for student/educator historical research; jazz music and New Orleans culture as well as state hurricane information. Many collections would be beneficial in establishing of geographic/cultural context for several literature connections.