Social Sciences & History Resources
It’s Thursday, and time for Social Sciences in our classroom. I can’t wait to check out these resources with Charlie. Before we begin I would like to ask you to check out the History resources listed below. Also have you used any of these resources? What did you think of the resources? Was there anything you didn’t like about the websites?
Recommended Website:
Age Range: 7-18 (Grades 2-12, with parental supervision)
Find over 60 well laid out history lesson plans themed around specific national parks at this website from the National Park Service.
Visitors can browse through the available lesson plans using three search criteria: By Park, By Skill, or By Theme.
Lesson plans follow the same pattern of presentation:
- Title – includes information about the plan developer, suggested grade level, number of sessions and suggested length of time to implement
- Overview – which park collection is used, a plan description, and any essential questions the plan tries to address
- Museum Collections, Similar Items and other Materials Used – a chart with images and/or links to related museum objects
- National Educational Standards – applicable national standards met
- Student Learning Objectives – objectives for each lesson or activity in the plan
- Background and Historical Context – “the topic of the lesson unit plan” in “historical context for teachers and students”
- Vocabulary – appropriate word lists and definitions
- Teacher Tips – suggested materials and resources needed
- Lesson Implementation Procedures – instruction for implementation of the plan as well as warm up and discussion suggestions
- Evaluation/Assessment for Measurable Results – ideas for measuring understanding of the material
- Extension and Enrichment Activities – suggestions for building on the lessons
- Resources – resources used in the development of the lesson plan
- Site Visit – places to visit related to the topic
- Charts, Figures and other Teacher Materials – any related materials used in the plan
Plans feature over 20 National Parks and focus on a variety of themes including American Indian History, Art/Music, Fashion/Design, Family Life, Politics and Government, Labor History, U.S. Presidents, Women’s History, War and Conflict, and much more.
Age Range: 7-13 (Grades 2-8, with parental supervision)
Bookmark this ad-supported website right now! It offers tons of great resources about history, geography, government, different cultures and more that your kids will enjoy.
When you get to the site you will see a headline banner with the name of the website. Below it is a menu that will help you navigate through some of the website. Below the menu bar, you will discover the highlights currently featured at the site in Recent Events, History and featured trivia.
For example, if you visited the site when this review was written, you would have seen a feature presentation on “Ancient Greece.”
Content you will find available on the site include:
- Current Events – Get some insight on what’s taking place throughout the world.
- Cultures, Holidays, Languages, Religions – an array of links to websites with activities, information, and resources to explore the world’s people and their customs and beliefs
- Economics – The website description of this section says it best: “Economics is not just money. It’s businesses and how they work. It’s lemonade stands and how many dollars they take in. It’s toy collecting and baseball card collections. It’s taxes and allowances. It’s stocks and bonds. Economics is part of almost everything you could ever think about. Find out how by visiting the links on this page.”
- Geography – You’ll find more than maps here. You’ll find links to websites with lessons and activities that help kids to have a better understanding of the world, and where they are in relation to the rest of it.
- Government – Learn everything from how a bill becomes law in the U.S. to how other countries are governed.
You’ll also find selections that contain historical timelines, information on U.S. and World History, activities for learning about every state in the U.S., information about ancient civilizations, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Wars, Archaeology, Sports, Explorers, and more. There are even teaching resources and other fun kid sites.
Use this website as a starting point for all your social studies schoolwork.
It’s Thursday, September 20, 2018, and time for Social Sciences at ClickSchooling!
Recommended Website:
Age Range: 8-18 (Grades 3-12, with parental supervision)
Explore the history of the Transcontinental Railroad and the technology of trains with this website from the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri.
When arriving at the site an interactive map will load with hotspots along the train route to click on providing images and brief explanations. Links at the bottom of the summaries lead the visitor to more in-depth information about the topic. Or use the left-hand menu to explore:
- A Brief History of the Pacific Railway
- Black Powder & Nitroglycerin
- Couplers & Brakes
- Cultural Impact
- Locomotives
- Rail Cars
- Rail Gauge
- Snow Sheds
- Time Standardization
- Tunnels & Bridges
Each page includes interesting articles and images concisely explaining the topic.
Continue learning about the railroad using the links on the right-hand sidebar. Here you will find:
- Search the Railroad Journal Collection – links to the Linda Hall Library digital collection of railroad journals from the 19th century
- Who Was Who – Discover the people involved in early railroad transportation.
- What Was What – a glossary of 19th century railroad terms
- Maps & Plans – Explore the Linda Hall Library digital collection of railroad maps and plans.
- Travel Along the Pacific Railway – Take an interactive trip through time with this clever timeline that includes images, animations, and tidbits of information (needs Flash to work).
- Hop on the Quiz Train – Test what you have learned with an interactive multiple-choice quiz.
Add this site to your list of must visits for your American history studies
Age Range: 11-18 (Grades 6-12, with parental supervision)
Celebrate the ratification of the United States Constitution that happened on September 17, 1787 with the resources available at this website as well as explore other important documents in American history.
When arriving at the site, visitors can begin by taking the “What’s Your Constitution I.Q.?” quiz by selecting the main image link under the navigation menu. Don’t worry if you don’t get all the answers correct. Wrong answers are explained. After taking the 10-question quiz, there is an opportunity to do an advanced challenge with more difficult questions. Or learn all about the Constitution and the Amendments, Declaration of Independence, the Articles of the Confederation, our Founding Fathers, the Supreme Court and more by selecting a topic from the upper menu. Not only can visitors read through the documents online, but they will find a timeline of related events, learn about the people involved with the drafting and signing of the documents, discover constitutional trivia, dig deeper into significant events surrounding the inception and implementation of the document, browse through papers of our Founding Fathers, review synopsis of landmark Supreme Court cases and much more.
Use the link under the home page main image to locate the “Fun Zone.” On this page you will find games, printable word search and crossword puzzles, printable Treasure Hunt quizzes, and online quizzes.
Check out “The Founders Library” link in the top menu to find:
- a list of U.S. Presidents and their portraits
- reading lists and links of books and journals written by the Founding Fathers
- things invented by the Founding Fathers
- a history of the American postal system
- the content of the Magna Carta
- modern performances of the music from the American Revolution
- what traveling was like during colonial times
- Constitution landmarks such as Independence Hall, Old North Bridge, and “Old Ironsides”
- Information about the first political parties
- Constitution inspired artwork
- Fashion worn by the Founding Fathers
- Colonial currency
And just for fun, be sure to check out the “Founding Documents in Pop Culture” to see video clips of Captain Kirk and Barney Fife quoting the Preamble, The Preamble Song from Schoolhouse Rock, Benjamin Gates reading from the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure, celebrities reading the Declaration of Independence, and more.
Add this website to your bookmarked links for your American history studies.
Recommended Website:
Age Range: All (All grades; children with parental supervision)
California became the 31st state on September 9, 1850. Dig into its rich history with this website.
When arriving on the homepage, visitors will be on the California History Timeline page that presents interesting tidbits of history that happened during the current week in the past. Information is presented in bite sized pieces and is accompanied by images or videos making it a great way to add a little history every day to your state study. Some of the topics include transportation, events, famous people, sports, entertainment, crime, catastrophes, government, business, and much more.
In addition to the wonderful collection of California historical trivia, use the upper menu to find:
- Games – fun ideas for turning what students have learned in history as games to expand their knowledge
- Stories – a collection of short stories about children growing up in California throughout time
- Videos – over 20 videos relating to California history
- Virtual Field Trips – suggestions for virtual field trips around California
This site is an excellent addition to your state history studies. Bookmark the site or follow them on Facebook as content is updated regularly and there is so much interesting information you might not want to miss.
Age Range: 11-18 (Grades 7-12, with parental supervision)
World History for Us All is a project of San Diego State University in cooperation with the National Center for History in the Schools at UCLA that offers free, online, and downloadable history lessons organized into manageable pieces that present world history “as a single story rather than unconnected stories of many civilizations.“
These lessons are designed for classroom use but can be tweaked for use in a homeschool environment. Unschoolers may enjoy the resources as well.
Easily navigate this site to get an overview of lesson plans by selecting the “Teaching Units” tab at the top of the website. Scroll down to the table below the “Organization and Index” section to select a unit of study. Or quickly go directly to your desired lesson online by selecting from the menu bar displaying the eras.
The Teaching Units are divided into three categories:
- Panorama Teaching Units – Gives an overview of an entire era of history in just a few lessons that include PowerPoint presentations.
- Landscape Teaching Units – Breaks down a specific era into 2-7 lessons focused on a historical development within that era.
- Closeup Teaching Units – Further breaks down specific world history topics by time-frame and subject matter.
Eras of study include:
- History, Geography, & Time
- Big Era One – Humans in the Universe -13 Billion – 200,000 Years ago
- Big Era Two – Human Beings Almost Everywhere – 200,000-10,000 Years Ago
- Big Era Three – Farming and the Emergence of Complex Societies – 10,000-1000 BCE
- Big Era Four – Expanding Networks of Exchange and Encounter – 1200 BCE-500 CE
- Big Era Five – Patterns of Inter-regional Unity – 300-1500 CE
- Big Era Six – The Great Global Convergence – 1400-1800 CE
- Big Era Seven – Industrialization and Its Consequences – 1750-1914 CE
- Big Era Eight – A Half Century of Crisis – 1900-1950 CE
- Big Era Nine – Paradoxes of Global Acceleration – 1945-present CE
- Past and Future – Reflecting on the Past, Thinking about the Future
When viewing the online lessons, links are available to access the associated Panorama, Landscape and Closeup Teaching Units as well as the downloadable PDFs of the lessons which include the complete unit lesson plans, handouts, and necessary resource lists.
This growing collection of chronological world history lessons make short work of your world history planning as it is all done for you.
Age Range: 11-18 (Grades 6-12, with parental supervision)
This website from PBS based on the 2000 four-part series provides information, lesson plans, interactives and more that can be used to supplement your study of French statesman and military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte.
While the lesson plans are designed to be used with the video series, they may be adaptable to work in your classroom without them or some libraries may have the videos available to their patrons. Don’t let not having access to the series stop you from checking out this site as it still provides some valuable learning material.
When arriving at the home page, look for the 4 thumbnail images in the middle of the page. Select one of these images to visit the page for information about:
- The Man and the Myth – Learn about Napoleon’s life in Youth and Family Life, Tyrant or Hero, and Self-Made Myth
- Napoleon and Josephine – Discover their Courtship & Marriage, The Emperor & Empress, and Crisis & Divorce
- Politics in Napoleon’s Time – Understand The French Revolution, Politics and the People, The Fall of Napoleon’s Empire and Napoleon’s Legacy
- Napoleon at War – Dig into Campaigns and Battles, Napoleon’s Tactics, The Soldier’s Life, Weapons and Units of the Grand Armée
Each section provides a few illustrations and informative text about the topic.
Also available at the site is an interactive timeline accessible by selecting the Timeline link in the left-hand menu. Choose the Classroom Materials to locate the lesson plans.
In the Special Features section visitors can send a Napoleon E-Postcard, download a Napoleon screensaver, review responses to perspective questions about Napoleon, or watch RealPlayer video clips from the series. For those with older browsers that still allow Java to run, check out the Waterloo Interactive Battlefield Simulator game. Unfortunately, this game did not load for us using the most recently updated versions of Chrome or Firefox.
While this is an older resource site, there is still a lot of good information to use in your classroom.
Age Range: 11-18 (Grades 6-12, with parental supervision)
The Panama Canal opened on August 15, 1914 creating a shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This digital exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries explains the history and process of undertaken to build the canal.
To enter the exhibition, click the home page image then read through the next few frames, using the red arrow on the right-hand side of the screen to move through the slides. After the first few slides, there will also be a map on the pages that can be used to move to different sections of the presentation. Topics covered include:
- Why Build a Canal?
- Choosing a Route
- Making the Dirt Fly
- Waging War on Mosquitoes
- Life in the Canal Zone
- Civil Engineering
- An Engineering Icon
- Did you know?
- Suggested Reading
Each topic includes informational text, relevant images that can be enlarged by clicking on them, quotes from people of the time, and additional facts relevant to the subject.
This site makes a nice resource for your history studies of building of the Panama Canal.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
