Social Science

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Contents 1 Standards For Social Science 2 Online Resources for Social Science 3 "Real Lives" Game 4 http://www.educationalsimulations.com/ 4.1 General Social Science Resources 4.2 History 4.3 Geography 4.4 Economics 4.5 Political Science 4.6 Anthropology 4.7 Sociology

Standards For Social Science

Online Resources for Social Science

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Social Studies Skills Tutor.
http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/ss_skills_tutor/
Grades 6-12.
History, Geography, Social Studies, Social Sciences.
This is a free web application where students can individually learn, practice, and apply a variety of social study skills in a fun, interactive, colorful interface.(James Adams) This site is great for ELL students because there is an audio component.(Sarah Dixon)

Social Studies for Kids.
www.socialstudiesforkids.com.
Grades 1-12.
History, Geography, Social Studies, Social Sciences.
Main portal site for other sites with the above topics. Site has lessons that are taught through the use of time lines, historical maps, and pictures. The site also has a glossary, a forum, and articles written by experts on various topics.(Pat Kondzella)

Kids.gov
Discipline: History, Social Studies
Grade Level: K-8
Website Address: http://www.kids.gov/
Description: TKids.gov, is a site dedicated to the understanding of history. The site includes interactive learning of history through art, games, lessons, and articles about how our economy works. The games allow the child to interact with the program through visual media. The site sections off learning for grades K-5, and 6-8 to apply specific activities to different age learners.(Sherwin Kim)

American Presidents
Discipline: History, Social Studies
Grade Level: 7-12
Website Address: http://www.americanpresidents.org/
Description: This website, created as a companion to the network's 20th Anniversary television series, provides an in-depth look at each of the presidents, their lives, families and administrations. It provides biographical facts including: key events of each presidency, presidential places, and reference materials. (Michael Crawford)

Discipline: Social Science
Grade Level: Grade 5
Web Site Address: http://www.teachersfirst.com/share/states/index-net.html
Description: This link on the teachers first website provides a map of the Unites States complete with a a link to each of the fifty states. Each state link shows that states’ location within the continental US and also provides a great volume of pertinent demographical, historical, and interesting information for that specific state. There are several points of interest listed for each state and a brief description of what one might find there. To complete the state sites, there is a link to that state’s home page which provides students with an even more in depth look at each state.(Briahna Nelson)

BrainPOP
Discipline: Science, Math, Health, Technology, Social Studies, Art, and Music
Grade Level: 3rd and 8th
Website Address: http://www.brainpop.com
Description: This site has great illustrations and is very interactive for students. They cover a wide range of subject matters and havProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0

subtopics under each main topic. They have games which include puzzles, mazes, and learning illustrations to help with homework. They have even made short movies to help with learning difficult subjects such as Algebra, Geometry, and Biology. In addition, they have a BrainPOP Jr. as well as a BrainPOP Español to reach out to more students. (Christina Sermak)

“50 States” Discipline: 50 States.com is a website that can be used for the subject of social studies. Grade Level: 2-12 Website Address: http://www.50states.com/ DProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0

cription: This is a great website for students to explore the 50 states. It also allows them to learn the state’s abbreviations, the state bird and the state flag. Commonwealths and territories can also be explored here. The site also provides ideas and strategies to learning the 50 states such as songs and tools.

“Kids Finance” Discipline: Kids Finance is a unique website for teachers, students and families. It allows students to learn about how to make and spend money. Grade Level: K-5 Website Address: http://www.kids-finance.info/ Description: This website is great for parents because it offers advice about giving their children allowances. It is also helpful to students because it gives tips about how to make money and how to spend their money wisely. It helps children become aware of money management and teaching children about money.

National Geographic Kids
Disciplines: History/Nature
Grade Levels: K-6
Web Site Address: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ Description: This site offers an interactive website for children to go explore topic about History and Nature. For example, there was a “Test your Pirate Knowledge” quiz in honor of National Speak Like a Pirate day. This quiz was entertaining, but also informational about some pirate history. Teachers could use it to find fun activities or games to use in class or for fun homework assignments where children find an article to share in class. (Caitlyn Carhart) For 6th grade, there is a game called the "Tomb of the Unknown Mummy." You could have students become archeologists and keep a journal of the artifacts they found and then write an analysis about why they think these artifacts are proof that a particular Egyptian lived in this tomb.

Smithsonian’s History Explorer
Discipline: History
Grade level: K-12
Website address: http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu/
Description: Smithsonian’s History Explorer is a great history website. Lesson plans and activities can be sorted be grade level, time period, and historical era. There are also interactive online activities for students to go through which can be sorted in a similar fashion. Additionally, there is a “Museum Artifacts” link where students can view artifacts held in Smithsonian Museums online, without ever having to leave the classroom. (Alexandra Gorelick)

Enchanted Learning
Discipline: Geography
Grade Level: 4th and 5th
Website Address: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/statesbw/
Description: This website provides print outs for Social Studies concepts in upper-grades. Some print outs include: Labeling the States, Labeling the Capitals, Time Zones, and the Thirteen Colonies. The site also includes quizzes to test student geography knowledge on oceans, bordering states, and labeling states and cities. Overall, a great website and definite future use! (Jeanette Hernandez)

The Library of Congress presents: America’s Story form America’s Library
Discipline: Social Studies
Grade Level: 5th
Website Address: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi
Description:This site is a great learning tool for 5th graders. It encompasses learning about great Americans, Exploring the States, learning about historical events, and includes famous songs. Some examples include: The Civil War, The Depression, U.S. Presidents, activists, explorers, musicians, and scientists. (Jeanette Hernandez)

Encyclopedia.com
Discipline: Social Science
Grade level: k-12
Website address: http://www.encyclopedia.com/
Description: The site offers a search bar right at the top of the home page and, beneath that, about ten horizontally located pictures of popularly searched people, places, and things. Below this, the site offers an example of what searching one of these suggested nouns might look like, which includes a definition, a picture, and a “see also” option with suggested further reading. I searched “libel and slander,” just to get an idea of how the site works, and really liked the results. There was a definition from The Columbia Dictionary, and then four more tabs, two that gave me definitions from alternate sources, one that compared the different definitions, and finally, one called “essential reading,” which linked me to a kind of FAQ section with questions and examples about my chosen topic. My search also yielded google images, youtube links, related topics, and related articles from newspapers and magazines. (Jenny Graham)

Social Studies for Kids

Discipline: Social Studies

Grade Level: Kindergarten to 5th grade

Web Site Address: http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/

Description: This website is directed toward children who are interested in learning more about social studies. By visiting this site students can learn about a variety of different cultures, economics, geography, the government, and much more. Not only does it use word descriptions about each topic, but there are also pictures that help the student get a true feel for what they are trying to understand. (Danielle Abrams)

America's Story
Discipline: Social Studies
Grade level: 3rd grade-12th
Website address: http://www.american'slibrary.gov
Description: This site allows students to explore American history. It takes participants through a variety of activities such as Meeting Amazing Americans, Explore the States, Jump Back in Time, etc. For instance, students can learn about American's who made significant contributions to society (i.e. U.S. Presidents, Musicians & Composers, Athletes & Entertainers, etc.). A list of books is also presented that students can view in order to get a greater understanding of any of the time periods highlighted on this site. (Dorian Miller)

PBS Teachers
Discipline: Social Studies, Health, Science, Technology, Math, English and the Arts
Grade level: PreK- 12th Grade
Website address: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/
Description: This website is designed for preschool teachers all the way up to twelve grade teachers in mind. This website consist of a teacher discussion board where teachers can interact with one another to discuss anything related to the field of education. Here teachers can ask questions and receive advise from fellow teacher that will help them enhance their teaching. The website also offers a media infusion blog where PBS teachers offer strategies and resources to help create a rich and engaging learning experiences with multimedia. This website also has five grade groups categories located on top of the site where teachers can get ideas and resources depending on the subjects of interest such as math, the arts, health and fitness, social studies, reading and language arts. (Juana Cruz)

Scholastic News
Discipline: Social Studies, NEWS
Grade level: 3rdgrade-8th Grade
Website address: www2.scholastic.com/browse/scholasticNews.jsp
Description: Current event news are available in various grade levels of difficulty. These news cover national politics, international topics, environment, health, space, movies, sports, and so on. It has children as reporters for some stories and some stories are even centered on children themselves (ie. kid sports, projects they have joined or started, awards won, etc). It also includes an interactive community. Students have polls where they can voice their opinion on various topics (from politics to uniform policies) and there is also a link for them to post their written work and have other children provide feedback.(Sofia A. Ronquillo)

Discipline: Social Studies
Grade level: K-12
Website address: http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/
Description: Social Studies for Kids is an excellent resource for students, teachers, and anyone else who just wants to learn about Social Studies. This site covers history, geography, economics, cultures, current events, holidays, religions, languages, archaeology, and much more. This is an extremely user friendly site and provides easy to understand facts and information on almost anything you may be looking for within the field of social studies. I highly recommend this website! (Heather Gurnick)

Discipline: California History
Grade level: K-12
Website address: http://www.californiahistory.org/
Description: This website is an excellent resource of information and facts about California’s history ranging from the Age of Exploration through the Gold Rush. It is a perfect site for developing a basic understanding of California’s history. The site provides numerous facts and photos, in addition to political and topographical maps, and earthquake risk and intensity maps. There is also numerous historical links to other sites that can help a student learn more about California and its extensive history. (Heather Gurnick)

Website: Internet Public Library
Discipline: Social Studies
Grade Level: 4-12
Website address: http://www.ipl.org/youth/stateknow.com
Description: This site will give you basic state facts, and links to encyclopedias. When you get to this site you can click on links for any information you want on state research. You can choose the state you want and find different facts associated with the state. (Arpie Yalenian)

Website: United States Report
Discipline: Social Studies
Grade Level: 4-12
Website address: http://www.usstatereports.com
Description: This site will provide you with facts about all the states. Once you get to the site you will see a map of the United States, you can click on any of the states. You will then see all the various facts about the chosen state. If you need more detailed information, you may click on any of the subtopics under the heading of fun facts on the left hand side. (Arpie Yalenian)

Discipline –Social Studies
Grade Level- K-6
Web Site Address- http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/history/
Description- This website is a general social science resource for teachers. It includes links to lesson plans that are categorized in a variety of ways. For example, some lesson plans are for K-3, while others are organized by content (for example Native Americans). There aren’t a ton of links, but the ones listed seem like they would be very helpful.
(Stephanie Perry)

Education World

Discipline –Social Studies
Grade Level- K-12
Web Site Address- http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/archives/soc_sci.shtml
Description- This website is basically a list of helpful social studies lessons for teachers. It is extremely useful considering it has ideas for teachers of any grade K-12. The number of links that are featured on this site is extensive. This seems like a great resource for new teachers who might need more ideas for social science lessons.
(Stephanie Perry)

"Real Lives" Game

http://www.educationalsimulations.com/

Discipline: Social Studies Grade Levels: 6-12 Web Site Address: http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ Description: This is a wonderful website for older students trying to learn social studies. It has anything and everything you need to know about culture, famous historical figures, US Government and Law, World History, US History, Economics and Geography. Once a student chooses a subject there are different areas of focus to click on. There is a large amount of information to look at and read. At the bottom of the page there is a section for teachers. The section is for teaching specific units within social studies. On the bottom left side of the website there are free movies students can watch. (K. McLaughlin)

TIME for kids
www.timeforkids.com
Discipline: Social Studies
Grade Level: K-12
Description: Time magazine for kids. The subject matter varies from science to history to current events and it is an easy read that has worksheets, quizzes and organizers available for teachers to use along with the content. There is a section for each age group up to 6th grade. (Jeff Lawhead)

Best of History Websites
http://www.besthistorysites.net
Discipline: History
Grade Level: 6-12
Description: A resource to look up historical events. Has a multitude of links and subject matter. Each time period is broken down which makes finding a certain event easy and accessible. There are also history related games. This website is also a great resource for teachers as you can access lesson plans and activities. (Jeff Lawhead)

Submitted by Kristine Halajyan

Appropriate for grades middle, high, undergraduate and dradueate It is a free/open website. “Real lives” game allows one to live a life in randomly assigned country of the world, and all circumstances that the player faces in the game based on real world statistics. Students will increase their awareness of people living in different cultures, feel empathy toward them and will have many opportunities to make decisions based on real life situations.This game is very informative in topics such as public health, politics, human rights, poverty, social issues and Global conflicts.

Place your resource descriptions into the appropriate category:

General Social Science Resources

Encyclopedia.com
Discipline: History/Social Science
Grade Level: Approximately grades 6-12
Web Address: www.encyclopedia.com
Description: Encyclopedia.com is a reference site that provides verifiable facts from trusted, credible and published sources like Oxford University Press and Columbia Encyclopedia. Results include topic summaries, magazine/newspaper articles, videos and pictures. Other disciplines covered include American/World Government, Literature, Biology, Geography, Journalism, and Current Events. (Melissa Stephans)

United Nations Cyberschoolbus
Discipline: History/Social Science
Grade Level: K-12
Web Address: http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/
Description: This website is designed for use by children or teachers; it has games and quizzes children can complete and lesson plans ideas for teachers. There is information about peace keeping, global issues including water rights, as well as information about children who live in other countries. (Bethany Adler)

New York Times Learning Network
Discipline: Social Studies
Grade Level: Approximately grades 6-12
Web Address: www.nytimes.com/learning
Description: This very comprehensive site has material tailored to students, teachers, and parents. Student topics include: News summaries, daily news quiz, word of the day, test prep question of the day, science Q & A, web navigator, etc. Teacher topics include: Daily lesson plan (resources and ideas for lesson plans—including lists for ways to engage, inspire, research, etc.), issues in depth, on this day in history, crossword puzzles, education news, newspaper in education, and campus weblines (gives high schools the opportunity to create a high-quality student newspaper on the Web). Parent topics include: conversation starters and discussion topics. Other disciplines covered by this site include American/World History, Language Arts/Writing/Journalism, Civics, Current Events, Science, Math, Technology, Geography, Health, Economics, Fine Arts, and Media Studies. (Melissa Stephans)

PBS: American Experience
Discipline: Social Studies, U.S. History, Contemporary History
Grade Level: Approximately grades 1-12
Web Address: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/
Description: This site utilizes mixed media for teaching history, including text-based, image-based, audial, flash-interactive, and non-flash interactive features. The link to the kid’s site includes such fun topics as Secrets of U.S. presidents (Bill Clinton’s allergies; Ronald Reagan’s secret service name, etc.). (Melissa Stephans)

7. The Electronic Zoo

a) Discipline- History
b) Grade- 8 and up
c) http://netvet.wustl.edu/ssi.htm
d) This website is for children who are really interested in any kind of animal. On this site you can find information on zoos, different types of endangered animals, etc. I think that this website will be useful for students if the have a book report on animals or need to find more information on something animal related. (m. smith)

3. Geography for Kids

a) Discipline- Geography
b) Grade- 3rd and up
c) http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-games/usa-capitals-map-game.php
d) Kids need a fun way to learn geography that will keep them entertained and this website is perfect for that. This link will help children learn the capitals of the United States. After they are finished with that, they can either move on to the world capitals, or match states/countries to there picture on the map given on the screen. There is also another option to choose where the kids can work on longitude and latitude. This website is very interactive and will keep the kids entertained for a long time. (m. smith)

"'I Know That!'"

Discipline Social Studies, History
Grade Level 6-12
Web Site Addresshttp://www.kidinfo.com/SchoolSubjects.html
DescriptionThis website is a directory of countless links for upper-grade students which will help students navigate their way through American history, historical information, important people in history, historical events and government information. At the end of the webpage are links to powerpoint presentations and videos teaching aspects of American history. This website is an excellent supplement to students reading their textbooks at home and might be confused, bored or tired. Students who like to stay on the computer can easily switch to this website and do some reading related to important history and American civics information. As American history and government can be extremely confusing and overwhelming for some students to learn and read about, this website and those similar to this site would serve a large population of students needing an extra "boost" in their history knowledge. (Mary Loynes)

Discipline Social Studies
Grade Level 4-8
Web Site Addresshttp://www.historyglobe.com/jamestown/popupwindow.html
DescriptionThis is an excellent website for students to learn about the settlement at Jamestown. Reading about such a major, important historical even and city of the US’s history can be so boring if students only read about this in a textbook or see pictures on a poster. This website brings Jamestown to life to students and allows them to actually plot and plan an “arrival” spot, as if they were actually a settler in Jamestown. As the students “move” and “settle” in Jamestown, they are quizzed about the new laws of the land, the characteristics of the people and the ways in which they would choose to live and settle in Jamestown if they were alive during those times. These website also allows the students to see the consequences of each decision made, from which vegetable to plant and grow and from which commodity to trade and earn money from. This website could be an invaluable tool for students who have problems sitting and reading textbooks for long periods of time as well as those who have active imaginations, as it brings a major set of events from the 1600s to life for the students. (Mary Loynes)

Discipline Social Studies, Science
Grade Level 3-8
Web Site Addresshttp://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/extrememammals/moving-bodies.php
DescriptionThis website is an interactive, click-only website from the American Museum of Natural History. There are also several links on this website to other Museum of Natural History resources for students focusing on various types of mammals. This link that I provided above is an interactive link where students can choose from six different "moving mammals" and a pop-up window appears giving various facts and pertinent information about each mammal. This website is another good one for those students who are a part of the video game culture and only like to play games on their televisions or computers, as this website appears similar to those games, which would keep those students' interests. Some reading is required on-screen but the students would not be bored as the words are again in a pop-up format and the sentences are short. This is perfect as well for students with both ADHD and other types of special needs. (Mary Loynes)

Discipline –All Studies
Grade Level- K-6th
Web Site Address- www.iknowthat.com
Description- This website provides resources for all subject areas. This site offers various games, for the various grade levels, and the subject matter that is appropriate for that grade. Teachers, through this website, can find information on the standards, which the activities the children will be exploring, that will be covered. Through a classroom subscription, teachers can utilize the website in their curriculum and have access to their students’ scores. Students can refine their knowledge of the subject matter by practicing concepts on the various applets and also testing their abilities through sample quizzes on various subjects. (Alex Collins)

Freeciv http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Freeciv is a free version of the game Civilization. The idea is that Civilization is such a basic game that everyone should play. Its a little tricky to learn at first but once you figure out how to move (number pad) and control your cities then you will have fun. Be warned a full game can take a month! middle or high school %100 free

Discipline: History/Social Studies Grade level: 3-12 Web Site Address: http://www.historyforkids.org/ Description: This website is for children who want to learn about history, whether it is architecture, art, religion or geography. The web site is designed for children to click on the section and picture that interests them and receive historical information. They can learn about the seven continents, they can learn about the different architecture around the world. There is also a timeline on the bottom part of the page that can guide them to whatever time period they want to explore into. (Hykui Oganesyan)

Discipline –History/Social Studies
Grade Level- Elementary through High School
Web Site Address- www.historychannel.com
Description- historychannel.com is a great source for history teachers. With many online supplemental materials for educators, the site includes free downloadable study guides. (Jennifer Pershes)

Kids.gov

Discipline: Art, Social Studies, Civics, Computers, Health, Math, Science
Grade level: K-8
Web Site Address: http://www.kids.gov
Description: This site is run directly through the United States Government and is completely unbiased and not politically affiliated in any form or fashion. At the top of the page there is a drop down menu for grades K-5, 6-8, and Educators. Within each menu there are applicable links including but not limited to specific course content, games, technology, and money. Underneath the menus they is a box for commonly visited links and a spotlight on someone’s career. In addition to this there is a spotlight on a specific website. At the very bottom of the page there is a line of links that are connected to government websites such as the White House. (Dave Miller)

Hyper History Online

Discipline: History/Social Studies
Grade level: 4-12
Web Site Address: http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
Description: This site’s main component feature is the usage of timelines. There are several that are dedicated to specific content such as “wars” and “kings”. From there students can interact with the data by clicking on the specific content that interests them and once they have done this a box on the right hand side of the page opens and displays information and data. I would caution that although there are pictures on here it is minimal per item and main focuses on the data and in regards to that it is very dry. Thus, this site should be reserved for older students starting in the 4th grade and up. Any sooner and the usage of the site will be more difficult that useful. Additionally, navigating the site takes some getting used to which means that students need to have an understanding of how to use the internet and good problem solving skills so that if they get lost they can find their way back. However, all of this said it is a great place to give visual learners a great way to span through history, get a broad view, and then allow them to dive deeper into the content. (Dave Miller).

Kids Know It Network

Discipline: History, Geology, Astronomy, Biology, Human Biology, Chemistry, Math, Dinosaurs, Memory, Geography, Spelling
Grade level: Pre-K-5
Web Site Address: http://www.kidsknowit.com
Description: This website is a completely interactive for students and includes a plethora of information for them to ponder. It is set up so that there is a home page with all of the academic links but also includes items for them to learn from on there as well such as an academic song, quote, movie clip, featured animals, etc. Additionally, included with the link is a related picture and an audio feature that says what it is they student is about to click on. This way, you can have pre-K students visit and interact with the site that may not have any reading abilities yet or for that matter ESL learners as well. Additionally there is a subject specific search box at the top so that they can also do research if the classroom application requires this. (Dave Miller)

Discipline: Social Studies Grade level: 5th Web Site Address: www.50states.com Description: This site is perfect for 5th grade students who are planning to do a report on a state. It gives detailed information for each state and includes a map. There is information for each state, such as state bird and flower. The site provides links for further study. (Melody Pellegirn) (Michelle Karlin)

(Natasha Novian) Disciplines: Reading and Writing, Language, Special Education, Foreign Languages, Math, Critical Thinking, Social Studyaies, Science

Grade Levels: Pre K- High School (concentration mainly between 1st- 6th grade)

Web Site Address: http://edhelper.com/

Description: This easy to use website contains a variety of fun worksheets pertaining to disciplines listed above. The worksheets and quizzes also come with an answer sheet. It also contains Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0

tivities for holidays. This useful website also allows teachers to access an array of units across curriculums. The table of contents format of the site makes this site easy to use. Teachers can find what they are looking for by subject matter or grade level by using the search button. This site displays different subjects, quizzes and units for different grade levels.

(Natasha Novian) Disciplines: Handwriting, Geography units, Social Studies units, Science units Mathematics, Phonics, Writing, Early Learning, Creating your own worksheet or quiz.

Grade Levels: K-5th

Web Site Address: http://www.schoolexpress.com/

Description: This site provides some free worksheets but many of the units must be purchased. School Express contains many activities with eye catching illustrations and fun units for students to work on. In my opinion the best component of this site is the ability for teachers to create their own worksheets, awards, quizzes, word walls and practice sheets.

(Natasha Novian) Disciplines: Language Arts, Vocabulary, Parts of Speech, Math and Social Content manipulative based activities and customized work sheets Grade level: K-8 Web Site Address: http://www.toolsforeducators.com/ Description: This site has customizable worksheets with images; bingo, dominoes, tracing worksheets, game board makers, word searches, multiple choice worksheet generators, spelling test wizard, certificates, awards, crosswords, and math worksheets. It easily shows instructors how to make their own manipulatives. This site is great for language teachers, ESL, K-8, math and English teachers.

(Natasha Novian) Disciplines: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Handwriting, ABC activities, Reading comprehension, Holidays, Months, Seasons, Class signs.

Grades: K-3rd

Web Site Address: http://abcteach.com/

Description: There is a wide selection of worksheets pertaining to the disciplines listed above. This website is useful for students in the primary grade level. It also includes an array of signs that can be printed out to make the classroom more child friendly. This site is well organized and easy to use. By following the links parents and teachers can find a range of beneficial assignments for their children.

http://www.brainpop.com/ (submitted by Whitney Harrison) Discipline: Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Art and Music, Health, Technology Grade Level: k-8 Description: This site makes learning all of the subjects interactive. It offers activities and games. Click on the subject of your choice. This will lead you to several subtopics. For example, under Science, learn about genetics, or famous scientists, or ecology, and so on. Once you select the general topic, you can choose from more specific topics. Become a member to enjoy all the activities and videos offered on this site. Website: Flags
Discipline: Social Science
Grade level: 4-8
Website address: http://www.flags.net
Description: Flags.net is a great site for social studies students and teachers. It is a great site for finding the origins of flags, what the flags represent, and so much more. This is a great site for all classes working with flags. (Amie Hull)

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/ (submitted by Whitney Harrison) Discipline: Social Science Grade level: k-6 Description: This website discusses current events that are happening locally and around the world. Current events are grade appropriate and have worksheets, quizzes, and graphic organizers to go along with them. This is also a great resource for teachers to get ready made copies of graphic organizers.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ (submitted by Whitney Harrison) Discipline: Social Science Grade level: k-8 Description: This website allows students to see that there is a world of knowledge bigger than the one inside the classroom. Students can learn more about people and places, animals, and interesting stories. There are also games and activities geared towards learning about the world around them and it’s past.

Ben's Government
Website: http://www.bensguide.gpo.gov/
Discipline: US government
Grade Level: K-12
Description: This website is divided into sections depending on the grade level. The objective is to teach students how the government works, processes within the government, and key vocabulary relating to the government. It provides grade appropriate material, such as pictures to accompany vocabulary in the K-2 bracket. There are games to reinforce the concepts for all grade levels. There are printable or interactive games. There is a section for teachers and parents, to facilitate an understanding of this site. There are also links to other government sites, for all grade levels. (Jessica Barba)

The United States Mint
Website: http://www.usmint.gov/kids
Discipline: Government/Math/Reading
Grade Level: K-6th
This website contains lots of information pertaining to money and the history of money. The website has the heading HIP Change, which means History in our Pocket. It highlights how teachers can use coins in various ways to teach different aspects of the curriculum. There is the historical aspect, including the history of the mints, how coins have supported events in history, and which coins are currently in circulation. It also shows which coins are being introduced, such as the 2009 Lincoln series penny. It follows the process of a coin being made at the mint and shows coins from around the world. It has games to reinforce many of the historical concepts. If offers suggested lesson ideas to teachers involving the themes of money. (Jessica Barba)

Early America

Website: http://www.earlyamerica.com (submitted by Rosemary Blankson)

Discipline: Social studies, Music

Grade level: 3-12

Description: This site offers a unique array of primary source material from 18th Century America. From documents such as the Declaration of Independence to copies of original writings and maps, this website offers the primary and secondary educator with a wealth of resources to use during instruction, and they’re available on this one site. Interactive music, movies and printable games serve as extension activities for students and make learning about U.S. history exciting and interesting.

Colonial Williamsburg http://www.history.org Description: This site has various games and activities that would be useful for elementary and middle school students in reviewing colonial and revolutionary war events and participants. The games allow the students to identify important people and words in an entertaining format.

Social Studies Lesson Plans Discipline: Social studies, teacher resources Grade Levels K-12 http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/history/ This site is full of complete lesson plans for teachers. Each topic is organized by grade level and specific topic. Topics range from civic engagement to world history. A good resource for beginning teachers who need help coming up with ideas for new lesson plans. (Jessica Zafran)

Score History/ Social Science Discipline: Social Science, teacher resources Grade Levels K-12 http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/ Is planning lessons that fit in with California standards frustrating and time consuming? Well get ready for some relief. This website lists lesson plans, resources, and links to other websites that are specific to each grade level and California standard. Simply click on the grade level and the standard and you are directed to resources that relate directly to grade level standards. (Jessica Zafran)

California Missions
http://www.mvschools.org/sp/classroom/fourth/california/regions/

Discipline: Social Studies Grade Level: 4 Description: This site is from another teacher/school and greatly helped me direct my students to complete some terrific projects on the regions of California that allowed them to divide tasks among the group and teach other groups about each region. (Jason)

More about California Missions
http://missions.bgmm.com

Discipline: Social Studies Grade level: 4th Description: Well-organized site about the California Missions, each one structured the same way making it easy to compare and contrast. Useful maps also included. (Jason)

Site- http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/students/index.html
Discipline(s)- History, Culture, Art, Science, Nature
Grades- 4-12
Description- This website is a wonderful tool for students. There are many different links and topics that students are able to click on which allows them to explore a wide variety of games and thought provoking topics. There is also an area to click on for Smithsonian Kids, where tProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0

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able to explore topics that are more relevant to them. The website allows the students to test their knowledge on subjects and play against their friends. They are also able to quiz themselves on how much they know about the presidents. I found this site to be very educational.(Michelle Kaufman)

http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/socialstudies/scos/2003-04/015introk5 social science K-5 This website contains the guidelines in which social studies should be introduced and outlined for elementary eProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0

cation. It discusses exactly what “social studies” includes, such as geography, history, and environments. Then it details by grade level the content that should be taught and the concepts that should be learned by the students. After the explanation, it lists the state standards for that specific state. This is beneficial for an educator because alongside the standards, it also gives a more in depth explanation of the course assignments and material so that the teacher can keep the students on task and on time with learning. (Sondra Dingcong)

Awesome Library: Social Studies Lesson Plans Discipline: Social Studies http://www.awseomelibrary.org/Library/Materials_Search/Lesson_Plans/Social_Studies.html (Casey) Description: The Awesome Library website is a curriculum based website that provides teachers with the opportunity to find and use social studies lesson plans that represent grades K-12. This website is unique because on its homepage it divides its lesson plans into four categories; teachers, counselors, nurses, and principals. This makes the website easy to use and makes it readily accessible to the user. This website also provides the user with information on topics such as rubrics, methodology, and assessments.

Social Studies

Web Site Address: http://pbskids.org/historydetectives/

Discipline: History/Social Studies

Grade Level(s): K-5

Description: The History Detectives section of pbskids.org allows students to feel as if they are explorers within various eras. Video clips take them to different parts of the world and teach them important events that happened in that particular place and time. Students can feel even more like detectives by printing out the detective notebook, tools, business cards, labels, and bookmarks when playing the games on the website. Games explore student’s abilities to use their analytical skills to solve mysteries of the United States history, and specific time capsules. (Abigail Reifman)

Web Site Address: http://www.kidspast.com/

Discipline: History/Social Studies

Grade Level(s): K-5

Description: Kidspast.com uses an online textbook to take students through important parts of human history, starting with the prehistoric era and ending with The French Revolution. Chapters and sections are divided into short writing pieces and many pictures to capture student attention. Games and quotes are supplements to the online textbook offering breaks from the reading. On the home page random history facts are posted for students to explore each time they log on. (Abigail Reifman)

Brain Pop Jr.
Discipline(s): Social Studies
Grade Level(s): K-3
Web Site Address: http://www.brainpopjr.com/socialstudies/
Description: This website provides students with access to many animated social studies videos. The animated videos are made with young children in mind; they are short and explain the main idea in an explicit manner. The videos range from topics on government, American history and biographies to holidays, cultures and geography. With each video there are games the students can play to reiterate the content of the video, as well as other activities that can be printed and worked on later. The down side of this website is that it requires a paid subscription to access most of the material. However, there are some featured videos each month that have free access. The website also provides teachers with lesson ideas. (Lucia Lestrange Ireland)

Times for Kids
Discipline(s): Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 2-5
Web Site Address: http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids
Description: This website provides information about current events written in a kid friendly way. Students can find information about current events going on in the United States as well as around the world. The site also provides a multitude of links for students involved in research and students looking for information about countries around the world. There is also a tab for games that students can test their knowledge on general trivia based questions. There is also a link to the Times for Kids magazine were they can read current and past articles. This site requires a lot of reading so it is best suited for older children that have mastered some fluency in reading. (Lucia Lestrange Ireland)

Ayiti: The Cost of Life http://www.gamelab.com/game/ayiti This is a basic social studies game that teaches students how to balance work and family when in an economically devastated country. Players have to balance getting an education with working and making enough money so that they family can survive while at the same time making sure that people are healthy enough to keep living. It shows. The player has to make decisions to keep the family afloat.

Grade Level: 5

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/usstates/50states.htm Social Studies for Kids is a good website in which children in the 5th grade can learn about our country’s emblems and symbols. When you click on each site, it shows you all the facts about the particular state. They are also able to read articles and newsletters. There is a glossary for students to check the meanings of things that they may not understand. (Kelly L.)

5. National Geographic magazine(Kasozi) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ • Disciplines: All disciplines through News, videos, games, magazines and stores. • Grade levels: All grade levels from kinder to adult. • Description: • This is a magazine website that requires subscription. It is a very good website for research on different topics and news around the world. Very important links for the teacher can be found under the link of kids and educational link. National geographic provides an insight through cultures, wild life, and documentaries from all over the world and is one of the best tools one can use for educative purposes if available.

6. Geography(Kasozi) http://www.kidsgeo.com • Disciplines: geography • Grade levels: 4th to 6th. • Description: This website offers online classes for students from elementary to six grade. In the study of the earth inside and out, students are given illustrative lessons with pictures and notes about soil formation and erosion. In geography they study the earth and its corresponding spheres.

Discipline: http://www.kids.gov is a website that focuses on Social Studies in the area of government, however, it connects government to all of the other core subjects.
Grade Level(s): This website is separated by grades K-5 and 6-8.
Description: This website is a great in that it helps children understand the role and purpose of our government. There are fun games and activities that explain the branches of government and government agencies like the F.B.I. There is a whole section dedicated to providing visitors with links that go into depth regarding specific aspects of our government. I enjoy using the worksheets and activities that are available on the 2008 elections. They are easy for my students to use and they have fun with them. What’s also nice about this site is that it is cross curricular. They connect the government to Math, Science, etc. (Melody Himidian)

American Presidents
Americanpresidents.org
Grades 4-12+
Social Studies This site includes basic information about presidents and includes pictures and other references to outside sites for more information. The webpage is set up like a wikipedia webpage and is easy to follow. The best section of this website is when you click on a particular president, the side bar will show you upcoming scheduled (educational) TV spots about that president, biographies and historical events they are included in as well. This section gives times and dates as well as channels. (Amber Diem)

Civil War
Sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html
Grades: 7-12
This website includes images, biographical information, military information and history, history and step by step about the battles and campaigns, succession crisis, documents (scanned in and described), as well as fictional accounts and drawings. This website also provides general resources. (Amber Diem)


The White House
Discipline(s): Social Studies
Grade Level(s): K-12
Web Site Address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/white_house_101/
Description: This website can be used to teach about the White House and the Presidents of the United States of America. For older students, they could access this website to do research on the presidents of the United States, the white house and the practice of the government. For younger students, the teacher can use this website to show pictures of the presidents and share with the students some of the fascinating facts. This website has a lot of information that will help students better understand the role of the presidency and about American governmental history. (Lucia Lestrange Ireland)

Culture Quest
Ipl.org/youth/cquest
Grades 3-8 When visiting this site, one can take virtual tours to Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, Europe, North American, South America, and the Middle East. Teaches children about the flags, folktales, recipes, crafts, holidays and museums of that particular culture and country. It also teaches ‘hello’ in each language when one selects the particular countries page. This would be a good website to view during cutural holidays or events. (Amber Diem)

Global Gang
Discipline: Culture and Social Science
Grade Level: 3 – 8
Address: http://globalgang.org.uk/
Description: Teaching children about other cultures around the world, as well as, how children live in other areas of our world is the intent of this website. The ultimate goal is to promote a sense of unity and responsibility among children to make world a better place. Children can chat/”hang out”, play games or swap stories with other global gangers from all part of the planet. They can also play games that teach life cycles, eco-friendly behavior, and citizenship. Last, children can simply go to the comment area and express their thoughts on subjects presented to them, read innocent jokes, or look at children’s news stories. (Stefanie Gross)

America’s Story
Discipline: Social Studies
Grade Level: 2-6
Address: http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi
Description: This website is produced by the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. What an amazing tool to use in a classroom to get children excited about Social Studies. America’s history is portrayed through scavenger hunts, surveys, and a multitude of other games. If one were to utilize this website, they would find these subjects: Amazing Americans, Jump Back in Time, Explore the States, America at Play, and See, Hear & Sing. Within each of these sections are games, stories, interactives, and most of all knowledge. (Stefanie Gross)

Kids Web Japan
Site - http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/
Discipline – Social Studies
Grades – 1st – 8th
Description: Take a look into the culture of kids in Japan. Learn about Japanese folk legends or check out a snow festival at Tokamachi Elementary School. Learn how to make Rice and Miso soup. You can even begin to learn to speak Japanese. This website provides you a virtual look into the lives of children in Japan. (Elizabeth Martinez)

San Francisco Symphony Kids’
Site - http://www.sfskids.org/
Discipline – Music
Grade Levels – 1st – 5th
Description: Introduce yourself to the workings of an orchestra. Experiment with instruments, learn to read music and create your own music. The site offers different areas where you can learn about tempo and pitch in the Music Lab. You can select and play your own music in the Performulator. This site is a great place to explore music. (Elizabeth Martinez)

Social Studies Grade 5

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/usstates/50states.htm (Leslie)

This site offers 5th grade students or any student who want to learn their states and capitals an opportunity to study independently. Students are presented with a blank map of the 50 states and they can click on a state to see their capital, flag, and symbol information.

Social Studies Grade 2-8

http://www.studentsoftheworld.info (Leslie)

This site gives students a chance to see what schools look like in different countries. Students can also find a pen pal to correspond to in a different country.

The Gold Rush

Social Studies

http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/home.html

4-5

Devoted to the specific topic of the California gold rush, this website includes general overview information, fun facts, and assorted teacher resources. The fun facts are designed specifically for kids with their intriguing topics like “$100 glass of water,” and the teacher resources are excellent for additional information, student exercises, and a variety of additional websites. For those interested in other U.S. history topics, companion sites about Lewis and Clark and The Oregon Trail can also be accessed through this site. (Christina C.)

America's Story

Social Studies, Geography

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/es

3-6

A comprehensive resource for the study of the United States, this website enables students to not only discover each state’s history, including stories and photos, but also “meet” amazing Americans like inventors and politicians who made this country what it is today. Students can play games that require them to jump back in time, as well as watching a movie or listening to a tune from America’s past. (Christina C.)

Apples 4 the Teacher

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/
Disciplines: Arts, Language, Literacy, Math, Science, and Social Studies
Grade Levels: Kindergarten through Six
This site offers online interactive games by themes. There are math games using addition, subtraction, geometry, fractions, measurements, and patterns. Children who are interested in science can explore the oceans, seasons, light, energy and the human body. The social studies section involves history, culture, economics and world holidays. Students can also learn about the presidents and their wives as well as other influential leaders. There are also read to me books where children can learn to read by listening to books and nursery rhymes. (Andrea Figueroa)

Play Kids Games

http://www.playkidsgames.com/
Disciplines: Math, Geography, Vocabulary, and Alphabet
Grade Levels: First through Fifth
Some of these activites allow students to review addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. There is an online calculator so students can check there answers on their own. Students also have an opportunity to learn the alphabet online by putting letters in order or organizing books in alphabetical order. There is also a vocabulary pinball games that allows children to put letters together to make words. The geography portion involves an activity on electricity, a map that helps students locate places and jigsaw puzzles of the continents. (Andrea Figueroa)

Brainpop

http://www.brainpop.com
Disciplines: Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Health, and Music
Grade Levels: Six through Twelve
This online source is excellent for children in middle school through high school. It has all the subjects that pertain to the upper grade curriculum. The math section breaks up into algebra, geometry and measurement, probability, ratio and data analysis. The social studies section has all categories of history such as U.S. history, world history, geography and economics. This website breaks every subject down into smaller sections so its easier to find information and more fun to search. It also has a link to the JR.brainpop site for students in Kindergarten through third. It discusses the election and has a link to the state standards for educators. (Andrea Figueroa)

Site: http://www.gamequarium.com/socialstudies.htm

Grade Level: 1st-8th Grade Discipline: Social Studies

This website is set up as an aquarium. It has games for children and social study lesson plans for grades 1-8. On the main page presents a grid of 12 subjects and when clicked on it leads to an entire other list on sub-subjects. There are games which educate children on which president is on which dollar bill, games that quiz kids on their knowledge of the Olympics and so on and so forth. Brought together by one over lapping theme, it keeps the children interested and passionate about whatever social studies that are learning about. Its Subjects also include many varieties giving students the opportunity to learn about several things all in one sitting. (Shannon Carney)

Kid's News Room"

http://www.kidsnewsroom.org

Grades: I think 4-7, though the lesson plans are "coming soon" which may inlcude activities for other grades.

Disciplines: Social Studies, Current Events, Science, History, Language Arts, Math, Geography, Art

Description: This website is a collection of educational materials for students, parents, and teachers. There is a weekly news section, election updates, information on global warming, and games. It says that your class can even creat a website and then have them teach a Web Course. There are resources for teachers and parents, but the resources for teachers aren't up yet. Under the "Info Central" area there is information and activities on a number of different subjects. (Jessica Charvat)

Infoplease –biographies
Site: http://www.infoplease.com/people.html
Grades 3 and up
For students, teachers, and parents--free
An extensive listing of people to write biography reports about sorted by categories such as inventors and golfers. Each category has a long list of names to choose from, then a paragraph or two to get you started. For further information many websites with more information about that person is listed at the bottom of the page. Caution this site has web-ads that pop-up on the screen and you need to click to close them. (Janeth Benjamin)

Discipline: Social Studies/Political Science/History
Grade Level(s): Elementary/Middle/High School
Web Site Address: http://www.native-languages.org/kids.htm
Description:Description: A resource for kids and their teachers to study information on different Native American tribes. These include various aspects of languages, customs, government policy toward and other FAQs on different tribes/bands of Native Americans. The main objective of the site is to preserve and propagate Native languages, especially ones that face going out of existence. (Jesse Paulin)

Primary Games

Discipline: Social Science

Grade Levels: K – 6

Website address: http://www.primarygames.com/social_studies.htm

Description: This site has amazing interactive games for children to play. There is one game named ‘Diego Smart’ which is reminiscent of ‘Where in the World is Carmen San Diego’. Other games include ‘World Capitals Quiz’, ‘Name that State’, and ‘Name that Flag’. On the bottom of the page there is a link for teachers to help guide their curriculum based upon grade and topic. At the top of the page the child can also find several fun non-educational games to play along with tabs to other subjects. (Michelle Moran)

Website: HowStuffWorks

Discipline: Social Sciences, Science, History, Geography, Math, Technology

Grade Levels: Late Elementary Through High School

Web Site Address: http://www.howstuffworks.com

Presented by Discovery Services, this website offers explanations about everything from how a fax machine works to the history and concepts behind Murphys Law. There are also quizzes and polls to take part in, videos to watch, and a newsletter, as well as links to maps and product reviews. At the bottom of the home page, sites like TLC, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet are just a click away. Virtually every topic and area of study is represented here; it would be easy to satisfy an entire classroom of individual interests with this site. (Megan Folsom)

Website: N.Y. Times Student Connections

Discipline: Social Sciences, Science, Language Arts

Grade Levels: Middle School and High School

Web Site Address: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students

A more serious site for older kids, this is an extension of the newspaper giant, The New York Times. Student Connections is a daily on-line paper with news summaries, current events quizzes, student letters to the editor, science question-and-answers, and a word of the day. There is a link to Upfront, a news magazine for teens, as well as a Web navigator and sections organized by subject matter to help students with their homework. The New York Times offers at least five scholarships a year to high school seniors planning to attend a college in New York City; details are available on this site. (Educators can browse Teacher Connections, a separate site, for lesson plans, education news, and other resources.) (Megan Folsom)

Smithsonian Education

Discipline: Art and Design, Science and Technology, History and Culture, Language Arts

Grade: K-12

Website: http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/

The Smithsonian education website has separate pages for educators, families, and students. The educators’ page includes resources for lesson plans searchable by grade level and subject, as well as searchable state standards, and resources for field trips and professional development. The Families’ page focuses primarily on visiting the Smithsonian Institute. The Students’ page includes a variety of games and activities; the only draw back is they are not searchable by age. (Megan Maxwell)

Westward II

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/role_strategy/westwardii.html

Westward II is a game that allows the player to manipulate the characters, buildings, and food in a new village. The goal is to build a community that will thrive. The player is given a specific amount of resources. The player can build new structures, buy materials, employ workers, and trade items with other characters. Students can play this game as part of a lesson or unit on communities. Students can learn about keeping residents happy, making sure the community has enough resources to keep going, and that there are enough jobs for residents. This game would be appropriate for elementary through high schools students. The game available for free at the website is only a demo and can be played for 60 minutes before the game stops. The full version is available for $19.95.

National Geographic http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/ Grades: K-12 Discipline: All subject areas This portion of the National Geographic website includes excellent videos which teachers can use for instruction, or students can browse through. Videos are displayed by category such as music, travel and cultures, and animals. (Kalpana Somanathan)

Time for Kids http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids Grades: K-6 Discipline: Social Studies, all subject areas Time Magazines for Kids is a resource for students, where they can read current and previous magazine articles, take quizzes, and read about current news events. The site also includes links to other educational websites with games. There is also a Writing Help section that students can use for help in each writing genre, to view a model paper, and download graphic organizers. (Kalpana Somanathan)

History

Discipline(s) : history (social sciences)
Grade level(s) : 1-5
Website address: http://www.kidspast.com/
Description: kidspast.com is a great way for children to understand where they came from and what happened before they were born. The website teaches history interactively through history text, games, and quotes. Every time the home page is refreshed it also gives a new interesting fact about an area of history that a student can’t help but to remember! (Did you know Cleopatra was Greek, not Egyptian?) (J. Bleaman)

Colonial Williamsburg
Discipline: History
Grade: 2nd—12th
Website: http://www.history.org/history/
Description: This is a history based website about Colonial Williamsburg. It is a very comprehensive site, and useful for students who are not in visiting distance of the actual location. There are games for younger children, history packed pages for older students, and lesson plans and worksheets for Teachers. The photographs are wonderful and really give you a feel for what it was like back in the 18th century. (S. Jacks)

Primary Games
Discipline: History, Math, Science, Language Arts
Grade: Pre-K—4th
Website: http://www.primarygames.com
Description: This site for younger children has a useful curriculum guide page to help you determine which of the games are appropriate for your grade of students. It is a visually stimulating site with bright colors and easy to maneuver pages. The history pages are deceptively difficult, but empowering when you conquer them. There are a number of useful games to support your curriculum. (S. Jacks)

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/socialstud.html social science K-6

This website provides free activities and games for children in the elementary setting. It is all focused on social studies. It includes American history-presidents, wars, etc. It also includes cultures from around the world and geography. It has many images and graphics to make it more engaging to the viewer and also more enjoyable if the teacher decides to download the activities. There are sites to the left that incorporate themes pertaining to the month and the holidays that occur in that month. The holidays about certain historical events and people are emphasized creating a wide variety of activities and lessons. (Sondra Dingcong)

American Colonial History
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/colonial.htm (Jessica Roussel) This website is an excellent resource for students k-12 as well as for teachers. The main attraction to this website is the access it has to primary documents that pertain to America’s Colonial Past, including transcripts from the Salem Witch trials, Charters, grants, and literature. Additionally the website provides links to articles or writings on the matters of colonial life, including military, state, political, agriculture pieces that make up the this time period.
Website: American Presidents
Discipline: American History
Grade level: 4-12
Website address: http:// www.americanpresidents.com
Description: American Presidents is a great tool for all students learning about the American history or presidents. It provides a videos, pictures, and tons of information on United States Presidents. It is a very interactive website that students of any age can enjoy. . (Amie Hull)

Educational Games for All
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games_menu.htm (Jessica Roussel) This website is for k-5 students. It is an interactive website with games and activities the students can do in multiple subjects. This website is a resource for helping reinforce matters of the US, World, Animals, Vocabulary, Health, Science, Math and History. What is really excellent is that there is free software that can be downloaded so that kids can use these games in the classroom. One example is a world geography game that can be uProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0

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e best History sites
http://www.besthistorysites.net/ (Jessica Roussel) This website is useful for students in 8 grade and up.This is a great educational website for teachers it covers are periods of history. The website is more of a hub to start from when researching a different topic in history. It is great because it is so specific that whatever topic is beinProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0

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s well.

Educational Games

www.schooltimesgames.com (Jessica Roussel)

This website is great for students from 4-12. There are games in all genres from social studies, language arts, science and math. The Social Studies genre covers geography from all around the world. A Time trip game in which the students are to order when events happened in history. A game that takes you back into the past of colonial beginnings. The science genre has games covering different that teach gravity, ecosystems, properties of a blood cell, and more. The language arts component to the website has them practice matching words to their definition, and word scrambles. The math section of this website challenges the students logic, has practice for using money, and works theirs geometry skills. It is a great website to keep math review learning fun. The logic parts of each section are great for the older kids.

http://www.besthistorysites.net/

History is all you will find at this website: Links to over a thousand different history websites, lesson plans, teacher guides, history games, history activities, including a link to The Center for Teaching History with Technology (THWT). The THWT center aims to help K-12 history and social studies teachers incorporate technology effectively into their courses. Resources are easy to navigate, and multiple choices are available by period in history. The website has Ancient history games, Medieval history games, Early Modern history games, Modern U.S. history games, Modern world history games and Animated maps. (Sam Z)

http://www.kent.k12.wa.us//KSD/DE/research/soc_studies.html Social Studies 6th grade

Great site for 6th graders studying various countries and their history. Very to navigate especially for younger kids doing a research paper. Sometimes big encyclopedias are hard to access or understand but this site offers a lot of great information about countries and important events that took place in them. It also provides information about key historical events. . (Jenna Fodor)

Identifying Historical Sources http://www.phschool.com/curriculum_support/ss_skills_tutor/content/pop.html This program allows students to learn to identify primary and secondary sources. It also allows students to identify cause and effects and to critically think.

Jamestown Online Adventure Site: http://www.historyglobe.com/flash.html#a1 Grade Level: 5-8, ELL Discipline: Social Studies

This is a free website that has an activity on the original settlers of Jamestown. It runs on flash. Basically, the user decides the following: -the area on which they desire to settle -the relationship they want to have with the Native Americans -what type of housing the settlers will have -what type of resources to look for -which crops to grow on the settlement

Students are able to consult the original Virginia Charter, ask a colonist, or ask a native (sometimes) for advice.

At the end, the program shows how well the settlement went, given the choices the user made. It then gives the user an option to see how Jamestown was really established. The user can play the game over again if s/he wishes.

Infoplease—US history time line
Site: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html
Grades 3 and up
For students, teachers and parents--free
A timeline of events in US History. Includes links to important people such as Eli Whitney; places such as the northwest territory; documents such as the Missouri Compromise; and events such as the Mexican War. This lines everything up in one long scrollable document. When you want to learn more, just click on the link, and you will get a short description plus more links to learn even more. Great for students who need to choose a report topic. (Janeth Benjamin)

(Shannon Kilcoyne) Discipline: U.S. History Grade Level(s): 4, 5, 6 Website Address: http://www.americanpresidents.org/ Description: This website offers information regarding all the United States Presidents. This information includes life facts such as personal information and public service, random facts, key events in administration, portrait gallery, and there is the option to listen or to read letters from each president. There is a picture of the president on the left hand side of the page and the President’s name right next to it. Under the President’s name it lists the years of his life.

Website: Any Day In History

Discipline: Social Sciences, History

Grade Levels: 3-12

Web Site Address: http://www.scopesys.com/anyday

This is a great website for kids, very straightforward and simple. It is presented by Scope Systems (they repair and service industrial electronics) as an “extra” on their site. Kids can enter their birthday (or any date, for that matter) month and day, and they will get an extensive list of famous people born and important historical events that happened on that day. (For example, Galileo Galilei was born on my birthday in 1564 in Pisa, Italy, and Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500 on that day in 1998.) This website could be a huge help in sparking students’ interest in History, as well as helping them find topics for reports and research projects. (Megan Folsom)

Martin Luther King Day (online resource)

Site: http://www.education-world.com/holidays/archives/mlking.shtml

Grade Levels: K-6th

Discipline: Social Studies

Description: This website provides a variety of information useful for teachers interesting in sharing with the students about the life of civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King, Jr. including more than 20 lessons plans for elementary students. Also included are links to audio clips from King’s famous speeches, a civil rights movement themed crossword puzzle & word search, and Martin Luther King coloring pages. This page is the best website I found specific to information about MLK with an educational resource focus. (Morgan Irving)

The Jamestown Online Adventure http://www.historyglobe.com/jamestown/

This software is good for elementary, Middle and High school teachers. Teachers can use this software to help students think critically about the survival strategies and decisions colonists need to make to survive. More specifically the software gives students a virtual feel of the decisions colonists were faced with in their efforts to survive

The United States Mint Website: http://www.usmint.gov/kids Discipline: Government/Math/Reading Grade Level: K-6th

    This website contains lots of information pertaining to money and the history of money.  The website has the heading HIP Change, which means History in our Pocket.  It highlights how teachers can use coins in various ways to teach different aspects of the curriculum.  There is the historical aspect, including the history of the mints, how coins have supported events in history, and which coins are currently in circulation.  It also shows which coins are being introduced, such as the 2009 Lincoln series penny.  It follows the process of a coin being made at the mint and shows coins from around the world.  It has games to reinforce many of the historical concepts.  If offers suggested lesson ideas to teachers involving the themes of money.  (Jessica Barba)

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage

Discipline: History

Grade level: K-12

Website: http://www.teacher.scholastic.com/activities/hispanic/

Description: This site provides an overview of the history of Hispanic Heritage in the Americas. The overview provided includes “Hispanic History in the Americas”, “Meet Famous Latinos”, “Latinos in History”, and “My Heritage”. The “My Heritage” section of the site provides testimonies by Latinos regarding what their heritage means to them. The site also has a teacher’s guide section. The teacher’s guide provides a lesson plan for online activities. According to information on the site, the lesson plan meets the International Reading Association (IRA) & National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Standards. (Olga Collins)

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Discipline: History

Grade level: 6-12

Website: http://www.ushmm.org/

Description: This website provides a resource for teachers interesting in assisting students learn about the Holocaust. The site specially has an education section that includes information for teachers and students. The teacher’s section provides guidance for teaching about the Holocaust including methodological considerations. The student’s section of the site provides a timeline and details of the events leading up to, during, and after the Holocaust. (Olga Collins)

The Food Timeline

Discipline: History

Grade level: K-8

Website: http://www.foodtimeline.org/

Description: This site presents an interesting topic: the role of food in history. The site displays an interactive timeline starting before recorded time with water, ice, and salt through 17,000 B.C. with emmer grain, and through moden time with Kool-aid and food on a stick. Each food entry on the timeline is a link that directs the viewer to an external website that gives the history or significance on the food item in the food item. There is also information and link on the subject of food allergies. (Olga Collins)

The White House

Discipline: History

Grade level: K-12

Website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Description: This site is hosted by the White House and provides detailed information about the White House including its history, biography on each of the 44 president of the United States, and biographies on the First Ladies. Information is also presented on Camp David and Air Force One. The site also has links describing to the White House Briefing Room, current issues like foreign policy, and information the current administration. (Olga Collins)

Geography

Maps

Social Studies, Geography

http://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx?nav=FF

k-12

A source for enjoyable, interactive map games for students of all ages, this website offers a variety of different exercises to promote geography and map skills. Concepts reinforced through the quizzes and games are as broad as the seven continents and specific as the U.S. capitals. (Christina C.)

Geography

Grade Level: K-12

http://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx?nav=FF Geography is not easy to learn, but when you make it a game it could be easier to learn. Maps.com consists of man different kinds of geography games. It helps students enhance their map skills in any area of the world. (Kelly L.)

K Bears

http://www.kbears.com/geography.html
Discipline: World Geography
Grade Levels: Second through Fourth
This website focuses on geography and social studies. It has map activities that focus on continents, the oceans, and directions such as North, South, East, and West. There is also a climate map that shows the different climates in each of the continents. There are maps that can be printed out and colored and labeled for future reference. This site also provides links for parents and teachers. Teachers must subscribe in order to view information. (Andrea Figueroa)

Know Your World

http://www.minijuegos.com/juegos/html/index.php?id=5974

Grades: 8 and up

Disciplines: Geography

Description: This is a fun game that my mom sent to me a while back. You have a certain amount of time to locate certain places on this map. This game really made me realize how little my knowledge is of other countries. (Jessica Charvat)

Aawhere.com—US states
Site: http://www.aaawhere.com/geog-usa.htm
Grade 5
For students--free
Tired of boring old flash cards to learn the states, capitals, locations, and abbreviations? This web site offers multiple choice, flash cards, maps, etc for learning the all you need to know. Tracks the number of tries, correct answers and wrong answers as well as how long you played. Some games give the correct answer after one try, some give you hints and three tries. (Janeth Benjamin)

Discipline: Geography
Grade Level(s): Elementary
Web Site Address: http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/united_states_geography.htm
Description: The site opens on a map (you’ll need to scroll down to the bottom). An Einstein-like character in a plane is flying across the map with a state name the player needs to identify in a matter of 3-5 seconds. It’s a fun way to work on one’s state recognition. There are multiple choice quizzes on state capitals where one would need to know something about a particular state to get right. (Jesse Paulin)

http://www.purposegames.com
Discipline: Geography & History
Grade Levels: 3rd & up

Description: This site offers mostly geography games for continents, countries, and even more concentrated games with states and cities. For the most part, it involves identification games on where a country or city is located on a map. However, there are also other games that refer to a specific country’s history or culture. At the end of each game, their score, the correct answers, and the amount of time they took to take the test is revealed. Through this site students can visualize the location of the place they are studying and help them understand the world around them in an interactive game. (Hannah Kim)

Maps
Discipline(s): Social Studies-Geography
Grade Level(s): 6-12
Web Site Address: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/
Description: This website provides links to a multitude of world maps. There are world and regions of the world maps, continent maps and maps of specific countries. This website can be beneficial to students writing reports or making presentations in their classes. The maps on this site are very detailed and you can choose from current maps to historical maps. (Lucia Lestrange Ireland)

PBS – Teacher Tools for Africa

Site: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/africa/tools

Grade Levels: 3rd-12th

Discipline: Social Studies

Description: This portion of the PBS website provides dynamic, practical teaching tools and lesson plans for introducing student to the history, culture, and peoples of the continent of Africa. Detailed lessons and activities provide tangible experiences (links to African music and videos) and varied pedagogy in hopes of supporting teachers in the education of students about this important part of our world. An online Teacher’s Guide (pdf file) can be downloaded to accompany a PBS Africa video series. The guide includes specific standards addressed in each portion of the video/lessons, class activities, and vocabulary lists. This site is excellent and investment in the video series as a compliment to the information provided on the site would provide an excellent learning experience for students about Africa. (Morgan Irving)

Economics

Discipline: Economics

Grade Level(s): Elementary/Middle School

Web Site Address: http://www.kathimitchell.com/econ.htm

Description: A useful site to introduce kids to the concept of currency, money, economics. Offers links to governmental and educational sites. This site is a primer on what kids need to know about money and responsible spending habits. (Jesse Paulin)

Discipline: Economics
Grade Level(s): Elementary School
Web Site Address: http://www.usmint.gov/kids/
Description: US Mint site teaching kids about currency and money through games, cartoons, etc. Great resources for teachers: lesson plans, guides news. (Jesse Paulin)

Political Science

Discipline: Political and Social Science
Grade Level: 6th - 12th grade
Web Site Address: http://www.digg.com
Description: This website offers current event information through topics such as, Technology, World and Business, Science, Gaming, Lifestyle, Entertainment, Sports and Offbeat. This website allows students to research current information and teachers to stay updated on global current events. (Shayla Collins)

Congress for Kids
Discipline: Political Science, History
Grade Levels: 4-12
http://congressforkids.net/Constitution_index.htm
Description: Published by The Dirksen Congressional Center, Congress for Kids tells the story of the Constitution starting with the Constitutional Convention of 1787. According to the website, “It includes information about the writing the Constitution, the Great Compromise, the Constitution's signers, the Bill of Rights, the Amendments to the Constitution and what they mean to Americans, and much more." In addition to the lessons, each section includes a game or a related quiz. (Melissa Smith)

Discipline: Political & Social Science, History
Grade Level(s): Middle/High School
Web Site Address: http://www.snopes.com/
Description: Great site to fact check rumor, urban legend, political “who said it” “whodunit”. For questions on current day conspiracy theory, e.g., was 9/11 an inside job, were the Twin Towers rigged with explosives and set off as the planes hit them, did Starbucks charge 9/11 first responders $130.00 for 3 cases of water. This site can provide, if not definite answer, at least another side to consider – the contributions and edits are made in a Wikipedia-like manner where one person can post and another can add or rebut. (Jesse Paulin)

Discipline: US PoliSci Social Science – Resource page

Grade Level(s): Elementary/Middle School

Web Site Address: http://bensguide.gpo.gov/subject.html
Description: Offers links to government and other educational sites. Could be a good resource for teachers working with younger students or older students who need to research information for reports. (Jesse Paulin)

Anthropology

History, " Genealogy"

6th Graders

http://www.geocites.com/genealogy4kids/genealogy4kids.html

This site is a good social science activity for kids to find out about thier past, parents' past and grndparents' past. It allows students to get insight about their family background and get to know them better. It's a great way for the children to have clcoser bond with their family members. (Christine)

Children’s Folklore Discipline: Multicultural Grades: All Site Address: http://www.geocities.com/childrenfolklore/ (Casey) Description: This website is a multicultural based website which focuses on children’s folklore from 108 schools from 61 different countries. The website is an on-line anthology that is made available by children, parents, and teachers from around the world. The website focuses on providing the reader with descriptions of children’s traditional games and customs around the world. This website discusses the trends in children’s folklore and how the games are used so the children can connect to their society. It also provides resources for teachers to find more information about children’s traditional folklore.

Site: http://www.va.gov/kids/K-5/multicontent.asp?intPageId=8

Grade Level: K-5th Discipline: Patriotic American History

This website right off the bat is very passionate in its patriotism and is sponsored by the VA. With eagles and flag trivia all over this website is perfect for the young veteran to be. There is memory games on this site that challenge the students mind and ability to recall recent world events. This site offers links that allow children to learn “cool facts about veterans” and information about the flag. This site also provides extra links that provide information on the FBI, Kids Government, and The white House for kids, which s another website with games American History games. (Shannon Carney)

Site: http://www.eduplace.com/geonet/

Grade Level: K-3rd Discipline: Geography

This website is broken off into two major sections; United States geography and The Globe geography. Once you decide which of the two you’d like to play the United States is broken off into coasts and north and south, and the world is broken off into continents. The game itself is one that causes students to think about their location and the locations around them. It is structured as a simple multiple choice examination and adds up the total number of points at the end. After each right answer the little beaver host pops up and elaborates on the subject allowing the children playing a more in depth study of the subject. Points add up and reward certain fun titles depending on how many points the child wins. (Shannon Carney)

50states

Address: http://www.50states.com/

Discipline: Social science

Grade Levels: 3-5

Description: This website has various information for all fifty states. It list many things from the state’s capitol to the state’s flag. It also includes different climates found in the state. (Rene Ramirez)

Discipline: Social Studies (Russell Gustafson)

Grade lvl: high school

Web site address: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I

Description: The nice thing about any wikipedia article is that they give a detailed table of contents. I have used this feature several times as a starting point for outlines since most of my students are befuddled by them. The one concern I sometimes have about wikipedia articles is that for students who are behind in their reading abilities wikipedia articles can be difficult to read.

Discipline: Science (Russell Gustafson)

Grade lvl: high school

Web site address: teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/louviere/Newton/

Description: It is a well set up article. It provides the law and then provides another description that is simpler to understand. What I really like about the article is that it even has a quiz so you don’t have to make one.

Sociology

Understanding the World Today

site: http://gsociology.icaap.org

Grades: 8 and up

Disciplines: Sociology

Description: This site has the World Social Change reports, which are reviews of major world economic, demographic, social, and political changes and data used to develop the reviews, and a review of theories of change. There are also links to web sites with theory, research and data on global social, political and economic change. (Gene Shackman)

Discipline(s): Social Studies Discipline(s): 4-12, parents, teachers Web Site Address: http://www.yourchildlearns.com/us_map.htm Description: This is an amazing website; it is very interactive and great for children and parents to do together, and for teachers to do with their whole classrooms or in small groups, or for students to explore by themselves. The page I have listed features an interactive map of the U.S. it looks blank until you roll your mouse over it, then it tells you all the sates and there capitals, or the body of water your mouse is on. It has links on the right side of the page to a similarly set up world map, a puzzle, where they give you states and you have to place them correctly, which younger children could do, interactive maps of geological features and much more. I recommend exploring this website to everyone. (Annalee Schwartz)

Discipline(s): Social Studies Discipline(s): k-12, parents, teachers Web Site Address: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/homeworkhelp/bjpinchbeck/bjsocial.html Description: This link is for the homework helper section of the website discoveryeducation.com offering help to students in social studies. It offers eight broad categories for students, parents and teachers to click on. Parents and teachers can look through them with children to learn and discover together. Teachers can use this site to have students find selected information, like on a virtual scavenger hunt. They can use many of the websites great resources like the a link to 50states.com where you can learn anything you ever wanted to know about any us state, from information about the economy to internet providers in the area, and another link where you click on a year and it will tell you everything that happened in history during that year. This website has a lot to do to make learning social studies more fun and interactive for students and adults alike. (Annalee Schwartz)

Scott Foresman Social Studies

Discipline: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): Pre K- 12th grade
Web Site Address: http://www.sfsocialstudies.com/
Description: This website is a great tool for teachers and parents. It offers the same information in Spanish as well. The site has a Social Studies Library, which consist of the dictionary, encyclopedia and almanac. There is an Atlas so individuals can search different places around the world. This Day in History provides a timeline for events that took place years ago. It offers activities geared towards the particular state and book the student use in the classroom. The students can get extra practice for each unit using key terms from the book. These activities are interactive for students. (Carin Truong)