Group items tagged

This site is a WEALTH of information on the history of the United States. It includes letters, documents, photos, audio and video that are all in the public domain (and there fore also legal to use) since they are all owned by the U.S. government. Using the search box will yield many results. My favorite search on this site is to find primary sources about the great depression. A search tip: be sure to click "gallery view" when you look at your search results. It helps you know what type of source you are looking at.

search: Oregon Trail first person accounts and maps that help to explain trails and settlements Lincoln Public - grade 4 - Social Studies * Major rivers and terrain determined trail paths and settlement sites * Motivation varied (Oregon = land, California = gold, Mormon = religious freedom)

There are some great sites at this source. Their topics run from Women's history to Native American history. There are even maps. This would be a big help for upper elementary to 12th grade.

The World Factbook was produced for U.S. policy makers. The information is fairly easy to read and comprehend, therefore, students can use the documents, especially on the middle and secondary level. The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. The government documents they have are maps of the major world regions, Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.

Excellent site to explore everything there is to know about the United States government. Photos, facts and explanations on the White House.

Labeled "Facts and Fun for all Ages." Photos and basic information about the White House, the presidents, presidential pets and fun historical facts. Main focuses: presidents and White House. Visually pleasing, easy-to-use.

This site provides information about the various branches of the U.S. government, all of the U.S. presidents, the current administration, current issues, and the White House itself. It would be a good resource for social studies or history students

This site is presented by the Virginia Center for Digital History and the University of Virginia Library. It showcases two communities during the Civil War. One count was in the north, and one was in the south. It provides an interesting case study of life on both sides of the war. Students and teachers can use this site to compare maps, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, speeches and records in both communities. It also organizes the war into three eras: the eve of war, the war years, and the aftermath.

This gov doc outlines the Charters of Freedom, the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. It describes the process leading up the the document and the impacts of the documents once they became law.

Ben's guide is a gov doc that teaches about the US government. I accessed the section for 3-5 grades. This included information about historical documents, branches of the government and the election process. There is a glossary of terms and a list of other government websites. It is "narrated" by Ben Franklin

Resource to learn more about branches of government and the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Lincoln Public Schools - Social studies - 5th grade * The Constitution became and is still the supreme law of the land * The Constitution established separation of powers between the branches of government * The Bill of Rights was added to protect individual freedoms (for some people)

This site contains a wealth of resources for teachers. They have primary source sets that include teacher resource booklets and lesson plans. One of the sets I found useful was one on the Constitution that included newspaper articles and original documents that trace the drafting and adoption of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. This set would be useful for all grade levels for Constitution day materials in September. There was also an interesting primary source set on Thanksgiving that had paintings and photographs showing historical perspectives on American Thanksgiving traditions.

While the Library of Congress website is vast, I found the Classroom Resources section under the Teachers heading to be beneficial for my current position as a third grade classroom teacher; although many of the items I saw could be used at any elementary grade level. I found the Primary Sources by State and Immigration Challenges to be beneficial to my current unit in my district's SS program. The Thanksgiving link would be interesting for the students to see and discover things they didn't know before celebrating this holiday. I'll definitely use this site with my students, because it goes so well with what we're studying. Plus, it creates a more 'real' experience than their textbook allows.

The Nobel home web site offers a generous supply of first hand information not only on the prize itself, but of the many men and women who have earned the prestigious prize. The entry here is of Herman Hesse, his autobiography sketch in his own words. The home page offers links to all winners in all areas, the sciences, literature, etc. A great resource for librarians as well as students, mostly appealing to high school and up, wanting more specific information on Nobel Laureates as well as the origination of the prize.

This site was born from the work between the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. The site offers informational essays on the revolution as well as a number of images and texts from the revolution as well as songs and maps.

This site may be a valuable resource for information related to United Nations day held on October 24th. The Office of the Historian is found on the U.S. Department of state website. It has historical government documents, information on key milestones in history, and important biographical information on all Secretary of State officeholders in U.S. history. On the site, a link will take you to a guide to all countries that provides historical reference information on all aspects of the United States' relations with the countries of the world dating back to 1776 to the present time.

This site is a small collection within the American Memory Project website created by the Library of Congress. What makes it nice, is that it easily brings together many important documents that help provide insights into the African American experience from the slave trade to the Civil Rights era. Sometimes the larger American Memory site can be hard to navigate. This smaller sub-collection has nicely collected the highlights of the African American collection.

This site is a wonderful one for studying women in history. It details everywhere around the world. It is not just about the United States, but all around the world. It does not just talk about the queens and leaders but other women who were important to history such as the leaders in getting women the right to vote in the United States. It covers all areas of the world.

This site would be a great addition to a civil war unit because it uses documents from Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. It would help to present both sides of the war to students. Often in teaching the civil war, we neglect to explain some of the ways that the South felt slighted and it would make for a good analysis for students to be able to view and examine the papers of Jefferson Davis.

The Smithsonian has webpages for students, families, and teachers. The student site has primary sources in the format of pictures and video footage. They are called IdeaLabs on this site. The IdealLab I found interesting was the Walk on the Moon. It included a video footage from the Apollo landing on the moon and President Kennedy's address to the nation.

This website organizes some of the Smithsonian Institution's vast resources into four topics for students to explore: art, science, history and people/places. There are incredible virtual tours, online interactive labs, games and activities. The site has an educator's section with lesson plans and a search feature to find resources by keyword, grade, and subject.

Explore art, science, history, and people like never before. If you teach the solar system, plate tectonics, volcanoes, or rocks and minerals the Dynamic Earth site is for you. I was so impressed being able to go online and zoom in on hundreds of different rocks, minerals, and gems. Fascinating!

This site is joint venture between the U.S. Institute of Museum & Library Services, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and National History Day. The site offers thousands of pages detailed eyewitness accounts from a number of different groups of people. The documents record the first encounters of the Native Americans and those coming into contact with them for the first time.

This website has archival photos, documents, letters, videos, and maps that tell the history of Nebraska. Resources can be accessed through a table of contents with lesson plans/activities or by a timeline ranging from pre-1500 to the present. The timeline has sections for Nebraska events as well as national and international events at the time. This website is supported by the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications, the Nebraska Department of Education and the Nebraska State Historical Society.

The NOAA is the oldest scientific agency in the U.S. The National Weather Service that we know today dates back to 1870. Government documents on this site include meteorological and climate data from all states, maps, and images. The online NOAA Photo Library on this site has over 32,000 images, including hundreds of images of our shores and coastal seas, and thousands of marine species images ranging from the great whales to plankton. This is the homepage to access all of NOAA information and links, but there is an educational outreach link that would lead teachers and students to other valuable webpages sponsored by NOAA.

This is the home page of the USA executive branch of government. Use this page to link to biographical data on the leaders, The White House 101 (site for kids), The White House Blog, policies & issues, the constitution, executive/legislative/judicial branches.

This Library of Congress site would be fun to use as a bell work activity in upper elementary school. Each day a student could pick one event from "today in history" to share with the class. Informative with pictures!

Today in History is part of the Library of Congress' American Memory project. As the title implies, the site pulls a signicant event in history, reports about it and shows primary sources -- photos and documents -- attached to the event. The writers generally pick one or two topics for the day and elaborate on those. Excellent for upper grades.

This site draws from a number of collections (University of California Berkeley, The California Historical Society, and hosted by the Library of Congress). It includes photos, artwork, letters, diaries, and legal documents. The documents touch on the Immigration experience for people coming to the West Coast from China as well as document many of the contributions made by Chinese Immigrants.