Civics Resources
1. Congress for Kids
This website describes everything about the Congress. It has different sections on the website for the Independence, the Constitution, the Branches of Government, elections, and citizenship. There are many facts and games on this website. This site is very kid friendly and could be a site that you show your students and let them explore for themselves. I think that the resources on this site are something every teacher could use. A great assessment could be having the students, either individually or in pairs, take the quizzes that are located right on the site. I would want to use this site in my classroom to get the students away from simple pen and paper assignments. Giving the students that variety would keep them engaged in the lessons.
4. Our White House
This website has a specific Civic Education link for teachers to explore. In this tab, there are various links to websites that will provide insight on Civics. It also states discussion questions and activities teachers may utilize when teaching civics. 5. Michigan Supreme Court Learning Center
This site has numerous lesson plans for teachers. It also has information for students including mock courtrooms, exhibits, and curriculum tours. It is very important for students to understand Michigan's Supreme Court. This site has information for the general public, media & news, the legal community, and judges & court staff. 1. Peace Corps Kids
This is an interactive site that poses a problem to the students that is occurring within the community. This community highlights a variety of locations and people and seems to be located in a third world country. The purpose of the students is to follow the guidelines and help solve the problem.This website highlights information about other communities around the world, how an individual can get involved with helping others, and what they might have to do in order to solve real life issues within societies around the world. If computers or other technology is available, a teacher could use this activity for a geography lesson. Students could work silently or in pairs to help solve the given problems within the community and learn about how the economy, demographic location, language, and other cultural aspects make up this community and population. 2. David Rumsey Map Collection
This site is a resource to use when looking for different types of maps. It offers a lot of map resources related to times in history. In a social studies classroom this would be a great resource to be used for geography and history. This is because it offers maps from present day times and times from history as well. I would use this resource as a teacher to show where different places are on the earth or to describe a time in history. 3. CIA (Central Intelligence Agency – KidsPages)
The site is for kids to learn more about the CIA-what they do and how they tie into America's history. It is broken into two kids sections, K-5 and 6-12. I looked mostly at the k-5 pages and I thought a really great way to tie this into History is by using the pages devoted to different time periods of American history and in those pages it describes different historical figures and how they contributed to US intelligence. I think it would be a great collaborative research project for upper elementary students. There is also a Parents & Teachers page that has points on Internet Safety, Teacher Resources: Suggested Lesson Plans Using the CIA Web Site, Help Kids Say No to Drugs and Other Resources that would be very helpful for the teacher to take a look at before beginning a lesson plan. It is important for teachers to discuss internet safety before allowing their students to use the internet and I think this would be a reliable source to gather that information to share. 4. Virtual Maps
This would be a great recourse for teachers when planning what images they are going to show for the lessons, especially geography lessons. There are so many collections of maps that create a great variety for the teacher to choose from. There are two main categories including Online Maps of Current Interest and Online Maps of General Interest. This wouldn't be a website I would let the students explore, I think that it would be more beneficial for the teacher to look and gather recourses for lessons and discussions. Teachers would want to go to this site to find valuable and reliable maps for the classroom. Though this site you can follow links that take you to pages where you can purchase books and maps for your own classroom. The map above is just one of the many maps on this site. I think printing out maps like this one would be beneficial if your lesson was specific to one certain area, like Africa. 5. Fact Monster
This site is an introduction to world geography and could be used for the knowledge and resource of the teacher as well as directly for the students. Visiting this site would give you the opportunity to get background information on the united states as well as other places you may be studying around the world. Giving the students a chance to explore this website could be beneficial. An activity that you could link to the website could involve each student choosing a different place that interests them around the world and instructing them to do a research project that they would present to the class. Technology Resources
1. Teach with Movies
This is a premier site on the Internet showing teachers how to create lesson plans using movies and film. Thousands of teachers use movies in their classes to teach social studies, English, Science, Health, and the Arts. Lesson plans based on movies and film! Using movies that your students would find interest in to enrich class and drive assignments. More than 425 feature films! This site could be used in a social studies classroom by finding movies that you could use as a reward for the students, but also tying it into your curriculum. The movies on this site are ones that can be entertaining as well as educational. 2. SchoolTube
This is a safe, free website where students can post self-produced videos in the classroom. It can be a video that ranges from presentation to morning announcements. This can be used as a fun activity for the students to collect information and make a short video to share with the class. 3. Flashcard Machine
Teachers and students can create flashcards online that can be shared with others. They can be used for all subjects in class or at home. You do have to make an account to use this site but you could make one as the teacher and allow the students to use your account. This would also help you modify and monitor the things that the students are making. 4. Glogster EDU
Students can create posters or webpages that have multimedia elements such as audio or video. They can use them for book reports, homework, or digital posters. Teachers can also use these for lesson plans, presentation, or distance teachings. |
Economics Resources
1. PBS Kids
Mister Rodgers Neighborhood Mr. Rodgers neighborhood teaches children how various common ideas are made. This site is meant to be looked at as a resource for information by parents and teachers, and an informational and activities site by students of all ages. Songs, games, videos, and coloring pages are all available for the students to explore. This site could be used in a social studies classroom as an extension of an activity. The students would be able to learn about various topics and use this as a practice of those topics following the lessons. The videos could be helpful when introducing a topic to students, getting them hooked from the start. Along with in a curriculum, this site could be used for extra curricular.
2. econedlink
This website has numerous economics lessons and resources for ages K-12. Teachers have slideshows, lesson plans, and quizzes that can utilize for all aspects of Economics. The site includes many videos and articles that the students can explore. 3. Economic Education Web
This resource is very to the point for teachers. It gives standards, concepts, and lesson plans for grades K-12. It is very easy to navigate so teachers should be able to find specific economics lessons relevant for their unit.
5. EconKids
Through this website, parents and teachers can find literature useful for teaching economics. It has links to New Books, Books of the Month, and Text-to-World Connections. It is beneficial for students to learn using a variety of integrated learning tools and resources. History Resources
1. Library of Congress
This site would be very informational and helpful for teachers. The many resources that are available on this one site would help expand the amount of topics teachers could touch on in their classroom. Near the bottom of the site there is a link for Explore & Discover, this would be helpful for finding extensions to lessons. As students get older, into 5th and 6th grade you could use this site as an assignment. Making a scavenger hunt of the site with educational questions for the students to answer along the way. 2. Biography of America
This website is a great source of information, videos, maps, and other resources that explain a piece of history in America. The website first brings the students to a timeline of key historical events in America, and allows the students to select a famous era in history for further viewing. This website would be great for teaching an American history lesson. A teacher could use this site for a group project and have each group select a different period in time to look at. The project would involve looking at the sites main sub topics for each era: key events, map, video, and webography. The students may create a poster, display, write a paper, create a worksheet, or share verbally with the class the information that they had learned from this website and how their understanding of this information impacts their lives today. This website holds a documentary that dives into the important events that lead up to the American Revolution. It also dives into relations with Native Americans, the history of George Washington, and relations between the British and French.
This Website can be used in social studies classroom to begin a history lesson on the American Revolution. Printing out the brief synopsis of the video (that can be distributes as a handout), as well as showing the video and stopping for questions would be very useful for children. It allows you to help with students of multiple learning styles. This site is an interactive information site introducing students to the history and daily lives of people living in ancient Greece and Rome. You can choose a population group based on geographical area and then move through their history, daily lives, and societal norms. This site could be used as a history engage or explore activity where students are provided with the means to explore the site and discover an area that interests them so that they have more background knowledge in order to encourage class discussion and increase student learning.
This website is great for details about the two communities in the American Civil War. On this website you can choose what years you would like to learn more about such as the time before the war, or the eve of war, the war years, and the aftermath. This website includes speeches, diaries, newspapers, etc., during the years that are listed. So in other words, this website could be used in a Social Studies classroom by finding different documents or speeches that go along with the lesson that is being taught. Showing the students something that is real from that time period is a great visual and makes before the war, during the war, and after the war more realistic because they can get a better understanding of what actually went on.
General Education Resources/
Instructional Resources
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