Online+Sources+for+Social+Studies

Choose one of the following links, claim it in writing on this wiki, then explore it and write a review on this page.


 * National Geographic: [] || CIA: [] ||
 * Smithsonian Institution: [] || United Nations: [] ||
 * PBS: [] || Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: [] ||
 * Mariner’s Museum: [] || American Memory, Library of Congress: [] ||
 * Google Earth: [] (requires a download) || Museum of Tolerance: [|http://www.museumoftolerance.com] ||
 * History Channel: [] || Discovery Channel: [] ||
 * California’s Gold: [] || State of California: [] ||

Alex- History Channel This is a great website for use in elementary school! It has a really easy to search mass of information on many different topics. It is also organized into topics such as Science & Technology, Events, and U.S. Government. If you search a topic it gives a variety of types of information, such as expository text and videos. There are lots of videos that could be extremely useful in class. Also, this website offers “This Day in History,” detailing important events that happened today in years past. I think this would be a really intriguing way to start the history portion of the day! It gives a whole list, so you could look for one that would be interesting for your students or connects with something they have learned. This website also has fun and educational games. I played a game where you put the states in their place on a blank map of the US. What a great game for 5th graders! It also has a whole section on the history of holidays. This is where I learned all about Halloween. This is a very useful website.

Whitney- National Geographic

On the National Geographic website there is a tab for kids. I explored the Kids section of the website. Its broken up into categories such as Videos, Games, Animals & Pets, Photos, Countries, Fun Stuff, Community, News, Animal Jam, and Little Kids. The News section is great for current events for kids! It is broken up into different categories. It has a lot on animals, space, people. Some of the educational games are really good they are helpful and fun. Some are more silly and fun than educational. Everything on the website is really organized and easy to access. This would also be a great website for science with younger students. There is so much information on animals and habitats. They have a live webcam to watch polar bears! It could be like going on an in class field trip. The countries tab has many excellent pictures and information about other countries. Overall a great website and very kid friendly!

Mychala- Museum of Tolerance This website isn't really great as an actual online source. Most of the information is strictly about visiting the museum. I did find a lot of cool options for students as far as traveling and actually visiting the museum under the education tab and the youth programs link. You can then choose programs for elementary school or middle/high school. There is a lot of different information on the exhibits and programs at the museum. This website wouldn't really be good for general research about the Holocaust but better for maybe the students using it to plan a trip to actually visit the museum.

Sakura: Library of Congress This is a wonderful website for high school or upper grade students who need primary sources for their research. On the home page there is a list of categories to browse through (ex. maps, cities, towns, sports, African American history, Native American history, presidents, religion, war/military, etc.), and if your topic matches one of the topics listed, you're in luck. You've got plenty of reliable, primary resources including photos, literature, and maps. It's definitely not a fun & games kind of website. There's actually a link for teachers, which includes basically everything you can ever imagine for teachers--lesson plans, activity ideas, blogs to ask for help, and an overview of how to use primary sources effectively in the classroom.

June- PBS (pbs.org) This website has resource sections for kids, parents, and teachers. There are a lot of "free digital resources," lots of videos and games. There are resources for subjects other than social studies. I looked at some of the links they have for teaching the Constitutional Amendments. There are games for younger students, beginning at a preschool level, and content for grades 6-12 as well. I know I have had assignments that included watching films or clips on pbs.org for classes before. It could be a difficult website for students to navigate because there is so much content and a lot of it isn't really age appropriate. There is a section for teacher discussions too, in which teachers can share ideas and resources. Some of the content required a membership as a teacher so I wasn't able to access it.

Hannah - Discovery Channel (Discovery Kids) This would be a great website for science instruction! There aren't a lot of resources for social studies, though there are a few good ones for studying about the world and cool places. The "Tell Me" tab at the top of the page takes you to a variety of short, kid-friendly articles about things like world population and the seven wonders of the modern world. The games and puzzles seem to be appropriate mostly for students in third (maybe fourth) grade and below. The Discovery Channel (not Discovery Kids) website is much the same, with a lot of great resources for teaching science, probably for middle and high school. But the entire website is free, and on the main site you can watch videos and episodes for free, some of which would make really good anticipatory sets for fifth graders.