It’s Thursday, just 8 days before Thanksgiving. T will be out of school soon. Before that happens, I thought I would bring you Homeschool Resources: Social Sciences Resources. This is one class Charlie is taking this year. If your teaching Social Sciences, have you used any of these Homeschool Resources? If so, what did you think of these Social Sciences resources? If not is their resources on the list, you would like to check out and if so, why?
Age Range: 5-18 (Grades K-12, with parental supervision)
Get free lesson plans, printables, tools and much more to teach financial literacy and economics with this website from the Utah State Board of Education, the Utah Education Network, the Utah Jump$tart Coalition, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
When arriving at today’s link read the brief introduction and take a look at the Scope and Sequence to get an idea of what is covered for the different grade levels. The marked grade level boxes are clickable links to the grade level lesson plans. The lessons are broken down into subjects (Mathematics, Social Studies, and Language Arts) with the activities sorted under them. Many lessons include links to outside resources, so as always be sure to preview the external links prior to allowing children to use the site.
The left-hand sidebar menu provides additional ways to access the resources and is broken down as follows:
- Teacher Resources – Find links to the General Financial Literacy Course for grades 11-12, K-12 lesson plans & activities, and other resources such as videos, music, PowerPoint presentations, online resources and tools, and much more.
- Student Resources – Discover how to earn a Passport certificate for the program, games and activities, book suggestions, vocabulary/glossary, printables, scholarship information and more.
- Parent Resources – Browse through discussion starters, website resources, DIY games, finance apps, videos and more.
In the Online Resources section, visitors will find a large selection of financial calculators for things such as cash flow, interest, college planning, credit, mortgage, taxation, insurance, investment, retirement, savings and more. There is also a great list of additional websites that focus on economics and financial literacy, some of which include lesson plans of their own.
There is a lot of material and content available to use for your homeschool studies so be sure to bookmark this one.
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Age Range: All (All grades, children with parental supervision)
Explore American history with the hundreds of lesson plans, activities, interactive, media and much more available at this website from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
The homepage highlights featured topics, artifacts and resources. Visitors can use the search box on the right-hand side of the page to search for their topical interest which can easily be further refined by resource type, grade level, historical era, and/or cross-curricular connections. Once the list of resources populates, make your selection, review the information about the resource, then select the “Get Resource” button to access the material. Please note that some of the units bring you to an outside website while others are located on the Smithsonian site, so as always be sure to preview prior to allowing students to use this site.Visitors can also choose to browse content using the upper menu to locate resources by:
- Lessons & Activities – Search for specific lessons and activities to support your students’ learning.
- Media – Explore relevant audio, video and interactive resources.
- Museum Artifacts – Browse collections to use for object-based learning.
- Themes – Dig deeper into resources focused on a major theme in American history including:
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- A Nation We Build Together
- American Experiments
- Protest and Civic Action, the Civil Rights Movement
- The American Revolution and World Wars
- Presidential History, Politics and Voting
- STEM Resources
- Westward Expansion
- Immigration
- Hispanic Heritage Month
- Teaching with Drama
- Agriculture History
- And more
- Books – Check out the list of history related books to add to your reading list.
- Teacher Resources – Find help for using the site and primary sources in teaching history as well as archived webinars and more.
- Web Links – Examine additional links to other history websites.
Be sure to bookmark this website as it will be a valuable resource through all your American history studies.
America in Caricature: 1765-1865- Age Range: 14-18 (Grades 9-12, with parental supervision)
This website, sponsored by the Lilly Library, offers an online exhibition of political cartoons done in caricatures – pictures of a person or thing drawn with gross exaggeration of its most characteristic features.
The idea is to express satire and criticism of political and social agendas, especially during times of discontent or upheaval. While caricatures are always accompanied by text, it is secondary to the portrait that conveys the meaning through imagery intended to provoke a response from the viewer. The political cartoons in this exhibit depict times of turbulence in American history ranging from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812 and then to the presidential elections of 1860 and 1864 which brought Abraham Lincoln to the White House.When you get to the site you will see a brief introduction and a menu below it that includes:
- About Caricatures – Read the fascinating history of this art form.
- The War of 1812 – View the cartoons and read the text to get a feel for what satirists were trying to convey at the time.
- The Colonial Years – Caricatures of The Stamp Act and its repeal, and the “Bloody Massacre” also known as “The Boston Massacre”
- Abraham Lincoln 1860-1865 – Political cartoonists depict the elections of 1860 and 1864, as well as The Civil War.
This website provides a brief, but fascinating look at early American history through the eyes of talented illustrators with specific political views. It’s a great adjunct to any study of early American history – probably geared more for middle school students and up.
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Age Range: 11-18 (Grades 6-12, with parental supervision)
Explore the history of the lightbulb with this web presentation from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
This site takes visitors through the steps involved in the process of the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison in the 19th century and then examines the major developments made to lamps in the 20th Century.After reading through the introductory text on the home page, students can begin their exploration by selecting from the three “doors” on the page:
- Invention Factory: 19th Century Electric Lamps
- Invention Factory: 20th Century Electric Lamps
- Guest Lounge & Library
The “Invention Factory” sections are broken down again into the 5 steps of inventing:
- Store Room: Knowledge & Equipment for Inventors (Step 1: Preconditions) – Dig into what previously discovered technology and inventions help in the creation of the new product.
- Laboratory: Caution Inventors at Work (Step 2: Invention) – Learn about the people, places, events, and discoveries of lighting inventors.
- Marketing Department: Promotions for All Occasions (Step 3: Promotion) – Gain an understanding of the importance promoting an invention has in bringing new inventions to the public.
- Competition: Inventors: Have Patents Out & Ready for Inspection (Step 4: Competition) – Discover the importance of competition in the world of inventions.
- Consequences: Intended & Otherwise (Step 5: Consequences) – Examine the results of the invention of the lightbulb and its impact on history.
Each section presents concise information about the topic accompanied by exhibit images.The “Guest Lounge & Library” provides visitors opportunities for further research by providing exhibit scripts and notes, a time-line photo gallery of lamp inventors, links to other informative sites about Thomas Edison and lighting, history, technology, and energy files with additional images and information relating to lighting including ink blotters, patents, the science behind electric lighting and light bulbs, and significance of energy efficiency.
Add this site to your list of resources for history and inventor studies.
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Discover the power of words and its influence on shaping the course of our nation with this portion of the C-SPAN website. The American Writers series ran from March 2001 through July 2002 and explored “American history through the lives and works of American writers.”
Using the drop-down menu on the right of the page, visitors can select a time period from 1600 to 1975 and then a specific writer from that time period. After the selection is made, the page will load a summary about the author, a list of featured works, and information about the “Featured Place” from where the episode was presented. Select the “View Program” to open the episode. Video presentations run about 2½ hours and include actor portrayal of the writer, interviews with subject experts, political commentary, viewer call-in conversations and more.Some notable writers included in the series are:
- William Bradford
- Thomas Paine
- Benjamin Franklin
- Lewis and Clark
- James Fenimore Cooper
- Sojourner Truth
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Abraham Lincoln
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Mark Twain
- Booker T. Washington
- Upton Sinclair
- Will Rogers
- Ernest Hemingway
- John Steinbeck
- Whittaker Chambers
- William F. Buckley
- James Baldwin
- And many more.
As always, please be sure to preview the available content prior to allowing your students to access this site as there may be controversial and political information presented that some may find unsuitable for their family.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
