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The Explorers' Graveyard - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 6In the Classroom
Take advantage of this free and interactive lesson plan! Just be sure to save it as a favorite to allow for easy retrieval later on!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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ConneCT Kids - State of Connecticut
Grades
2 to 6tag(s): branches of government (66), connecticut (4), states (126)
In the Classroom
Have students create a simple online poster using PicLits, as an alternative to a traditional written report of the state. Share the site on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) then allow students to explore on their own.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Democracy Kids - Duckster
Grades
2 to 8tag(s): branches of government (66), congress (41), democracy (25)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a basic introduction to social studies lessons on the Houses of Congress and the judicial and executive branches by exploring the links at the bottom of this page. Encourage your students to write letters to senators or representatives after learning about their accessibility. Assign students specific government officials to research and prepare a multimedia presentation to share with the class. Have students create a Thinglink, reviewed here. This site allows users to narrate a picture. Have students create a simple online posters using PicLits (reviewed here). Rather than a traditional report, challenge students (independently or collaboratively) to create an online book using a site such as Mixbook (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The National Parks: America's Best Idea - PBS
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): national parks (28)
In the Classroom
Share the film (or clips) on your interactive whiteboard or projector. One section of the site enables you to design a national park postcard to email to a friend. Groups of students might research individual national parks (links to the NPS site appear on this site) and circulate their own postcards to other groups. Students can also "collect" national park badges that can be cut and pasted into personal or class websites. You could also have cooperative learning groups create multimedia projects about various National Parks. Alter student learning by having students create online posters or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, or PicLits. If you are near a park, your students could redefine their learning and create an online park tour to share with others far away! Try a tool such as Adobe Spark for Education.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Digital Footlocker: The Home Fires--Montana in WWII - Thinking Through American History
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): 1940s (70), 20th century (169), montana (3), world war 2 (168)
In the Classroom
Use this site to help students "feel" the realities of life during world war II. As you finish studying an era or concept, consider putting together a digital footlocker of your own on a wiki.Want to know more about wikis? See the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through. You may also want to google 'digital footlocker' to see other online footlockers assembled by teachers.
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The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-violent Social Change - The King Center
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): african american (117), black history (132), civil rights (218), martin luther king (43)
In the Classroom
Share the video and/or audio clips on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students use this site for research projects. Challenge students to write a blog from King's perspective. Have students pretend that he could write a blog for people to read in the 2000s. What would he say? Has his dream come true?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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We Shall Overcome - Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement - National Park Service
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): 1950s (32), africa (148), african american (117), civil rights (218)
In the Classroom
Divide students into cooperative learning groups to explore the site. Have them explore the site with the intention of picking three to research further. The text portions are challenging, so you should pair weaker readers with a partner as they research on this site. Have students pick the three the think are most significant or symbolic, which will be presented in poster form. Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here or PicLits, reviewed here. This activity will teach students about some of the major events of the Civil rights movements in a way that provides relief from lectures.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Americans and the Environment - National Humanities Center
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): conservation (104), ecology (107), environment (249)
In the Classroom
While this site is a little text-heavy, it is truly an excellent site for exploring the way the North American environment has been impacted by recent history. Select the time period that is appropriate to your unit, and introduce the site on the interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students explore the rest of the site on classroom computers. To ensure that they're doing more than skimming the text, Have students create online posters on paper or do it together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here) or PicLits (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Michigan Kids! - Michigan.gov
Grades
2 to 6In the Classroom
Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram to create a visual comparison of life in the late 1800's vs life today. Share the site with students to use as a resource for state research projects. Read how a bill becomes a law in Michigan and compare it to the law-making process in your state.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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About Illinois - State of Illinois
Grades
4 to 8In the Classroom
Challenge your students to create a web exhibit collection about Illinois using a tool such as Pocket, reviewed here, to share all of the important links, information, and even brief descriptions. Share the site on your interactive whiteboard with your students to help them find portions useful for research, then allow them to explore on their own. Create a scavenger hunt for students to search the site to find facts about the state.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Zoho Show - ZOHO Corporation
Grades
K to 12tag(s): multimedia (55), slides (41)
In the Classroom
To use this site, you will need to create an account. You will need to navigate using onscreen instructions. There is a video tour of the features if you would like to view it, but it is just as fun and easy to play with the tool. Slide themes are limited, but the tools are simple and it is easy to publish to a URL that can be shared with everyone.Use this tool to create presentations when students will need more than class time to finish. Have students make individual presentations. Instead of presenting on projector, have them share to the class wiki or within their zoho group to promote discussion and peer review. Assign a round-robin peer review so everyone gets some feedback.
Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Maryland Kids Page - Maryland Secretary of State
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): biographies (97), maryland (7), states (126)
In the Classroom
Challenge your students to go past PowerPoint and make an online presentation using Animoto (reviewed here) or another reviewed presentation tool from the TeachersFirst Edge. Share the page with the bill-creation process on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) with students and have them compare with other states' processes. Create a scavenger hunt including information from the site and have students explore the pages to find answers. Share the site with students as a resource for state research or famous American projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Maine Secretary of State Kids' Page - Maine Secretary of State
Grades
3 to 8In the Classroom
Challenge your students to go past PowerPoint and make an online presentation using Animoto (reviewed here) or another reviewed presentation tool from the TeachersFirst Edge. Review the list of books about Maine to use as resources for Guided Reading or class read-alouds. Share the site with students when preparing state research projects. Demonstrate the Tree of Facts and challenge students to create their own Tree of Facts for the state they are researching.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Louisiana Kids Page - Louisiana House of Representatives
Grades
3 to 6tag(s): branches of government (66), louisiana (6), states (126)
In the Classroom
Share the portion of the site on How a Bill Becomes a Law on your interactive whiteboard and compare to your state's law-making procedures. Have your students create an online "scrapbook" on states using Smilebox (reviewed here). Allow students to explore the site to gather information for state research projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Just For Kids - Idaho - State of Idaho
Grades
3 to 6tag(s): states (126)
In the Classroom
Have students use a tool such as Padlet (reviewed here) to create an online bulletin board to use to display information they learn about Idaho. Share this site with students on your interactive whiteboard (or projector). Then allow students to explore on their own when researching state information.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Interactive Colorado - Colorado.com
Grades
2 to 6In the Classroom
Have students create a simple online posters using PicLits, reviewed here, to show information learned from the site. Share the site with students to use when researching for state reports. Create a scavenger hunt with facts from the site for students to explore and find during computer time.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Mr. Donn's Social Studies - Mr. Donn
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 1920s (16), africa (148), archeology (29), china (84), civil rights (218), civil war (141), colonial america (97), egypt (59), great depression (30), greece (46), holidays (228), immigration (79), india (32), industrial revolution (20), japan (63), mayans (32), mesopotamia (32), native americans (116), psychology (65), religions (123), renaissance (38), resources (80), rome (36), slavery (78), westward expansion (41)
In the Classroom
This is the perfect site for Social Studies and History teachers. Use this site for background information when planning lessons. Place this link on your classroom computers to provide students with safe places to research. Several topics have video clips that are perfect for showing on a projector or interactive whiteboard. If using this site for research, enhance learning by challenging students to create a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Arizona Kid's Page - State of Arizona
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): national parks (28), native americans (116), natural resources (35), westward expansion (41)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students when working on state research projects. Display photos included on the site with your interactive whiteboard or projector when discussing Arizona, the Grand Canyon, or other areas of the state. Copy and use the coloring pages with the state seal, flag, and other images when learning about the state of Arizona. Rather than having students create a traditional research project, enhance learning by having students create a multimedia presentation using Thinglink. This site allows you to narrate a picture.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Colonial Tour from TeachersFirst - TeachersFirst
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): boston (11), colonial america (97), jamestown (6), philadelphia (10), roanoke (6), williamsburg (8)
In the Classroom
Use this colonial tour as a starting point for a virtual experience of colonial America. Assign different student groups to each colonial location, and have them create an extended virtual "tour" using a tool such as Google Earth, reviewed here, or (simpler) MapHub, reviewed here. Then have the groups take each other's tours to "discover" the colonies! If you don't have enough time for an extended project, share aspects of the tour and supplement by sharing photos from Google Earth's Panoramio layer on your projector or interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Old Radio World - OldRadioWorld.com
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 1930s (40), 1940s (70), 1950s (32), 20th century (169), listening (97), oral history (16), radio (19), world war 2 (168)
In the Classroom
As a class, listen to a couple of radio shows, taking note of the sound effects heard. Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to list the sounds. Have the class speculate about what objects could have created each sound. Post the radio site on your web page and assign the students to determine what household objects are responsible for the sounds for homework. Back in class the next day, use your interactive white board to share the student discoveries. From here it would be natural to have your students create a two- or three-minute radio show for a topic being studied in history or science. Students could also turn part of a short story into reader's theater (including sound effects) and record it as a radio broadcast. Use a site such as PodOmatic reviewed here. Another idea would be to introduce a unit on the 20th century, the Great Depression, or WWII or by having the class listen to a broadcast from that time period. Have them experience radio as it was, with everyone huddled around to listen (and no multitasking!). Talk about how the changes in entertainment formats have changed the way we interact in our homes. To hone in listening skills, you could create a worksheet with questions to answer, or have students take two column notes, asking questions about what they are hearing in the left column.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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