Social Studies sites

This page is one small part of Good Sites for Kids!

50 States Basic facts on all 50 states of the USA.

50 States in 10 Minutes Can you type in the correctly spelled names of all 50 US states in 10 minutes? Type them in any order, can even be all lowercase, but must be correctly spelled. "Helpful" countdown timer tells you how much time is left.

Archiving Early America "Here at Archiving Early America, you will discover a wealth of resources — a unique array of primary source material from 18th Century America. Scenes and portraits from original newspapers, maps and writings come to life on your screen just as they appeared to this country's forebears more than two centuries ago."  Excellent.

Around the World - Holidays from Yahoo! Kids - all about holidays from around the year and the world, 277 Christmas sites!

AskAsia "An educational web site for students and teachers covering some thirty countries that comprise Asia today, and featuring materials that stem from early civilizations to current events."  We used this with teenagers, seemed to go well.

CIA World Factbook Excellent information source for any country in the world. Well laid out site. It's now a secure site as well. Well, it is the CIA.

Ellis Island Learn about your ancestors at THE site to learn about immigration. Records of ships and people!

GIS Resources "Resource for GIS Welcome to the World of Global Information Systems" Lots of valuable links to maps sites, GIS lesson plans & education sites, geography links, and much more! Along with its sister GPS site, this is part of an Illinois-based ed initiative.

GPS Resources "Welcome to the World of Global Positioning Systems. The following links will hopefully give the participants a resource to obtain information about GPS, sources to companies related to GPS, projects that are using GPS, and educational sites that have a wealth of information." A wealth of information about, and links to, GPS lesson plans and activities, Geocaching activities, the Travel Bug project, more. Along with its sister GIS site, this is part of an Illinois-based ed initiative.

Geonet from Houghton-Mifflin. Upper level (US high school) geography drills. Students will have to dig for answers and will have to read and think.

Geography from Kids' World. Links to official sites, tourism sites, and travel sites worldwide, broken down by continent. Good place to look for info on countries.

Geography Dictionary & Glossary - The ABC of Geography "Welcome to possibly the most comprehensive geographic related dictionary on the internet for students... Over 1400 terms defined. This dictionary is primarily aimed at supporting secondary/senior/high school and early tertiary students who are studying Geography or related subjects such as Earth Sciences." Everything A to Z, from Abiotic to Zonal Soil. This excellent site from Hong Kong will become your fast reference for geographical terms. We want to thank Danny Harrington (BA Hons. Oxon), for this great addition to these pages.

Geography Quiz Online point and click interactive quizzes on US states, Canada, China, Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, Middle East, Central and South America, Caribbean, Oceania, and Continents and Oceans. (Try saying that fast.) We used these with teenagers recently and the quizzes are good.

Winslow Homer "Prisoners at the Front" 1863. Union Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow talks with Confederate prisoners. Badly wounded several times, Barlow ended the war as a Major General. As Attorney General of the State of New York, Barlow prosecuted Boss Tweed and broke the Tammany Hall gang.

Gettysburg Civil War site for kids, from the National Park Service. Investigates the causes of the war and the larger conflict, too.

Government and Politics from Kids World. Mainly US government and political parties' kid sites.

H.I.P. Pocket Change is the US Mint's kid site. Very lively, features games, fun online activities, and cartoons, all of which is to teach children about coins and coinage.

History, from Kids' World. US history, some world history, some ancient history.

HMS Victory official site. Learn about the world's oldest warship, in service since 1765! The only surviving "First Rate" wooden battleship in the world, HMS Victory was Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar back in 1805, and is still on duty in the Royal Navy today!  Use the interactive menu across the top of the screen. Interactive views of different decks. Photos of the interior and famous paintings. The various stats would be good for math(s) class.

Kathi Mitchell's Civil War links.  A big list of links to sites about the American Civil War, 1861-65. A good place to go for links.

Kathi Mitchell's Social Studies links A big collection of links to sites, arranged in sections. Her list of Native American links is superb!

Kids Past from KidsKnowIt. "KidPast.com is the fun way to explore our history. We are who we are today, because of those who have gone before us. " The Online History Textbook does a good job of covering elementary and middle school history. The History Games are pretty good. The Historical Quotes are over the top, and every child should know of them.

Kids Web Japan is a great site about Japan for kids. Everything kids would want to know is here, including anime and manga. Also history, culture, folk tales, interactive things to make and do, etc.

KidsKonnect Civil War links.  More links to sites about the American Civil War, 1861-65. Good page layout sets the mood, too.

Lakota Culture  Links to pages about Lakota language, origins, prayers, beliefs, and the reservations. Good information from the Acta Lakota Museum at St. Joseph's Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota.  We have visited the Acta Lakota Museum and we recommend it to you.

Lakota Legends  Links to 17 Native American/First Nations legends, or folk tales if you prefer. You won't see these anywhere else online. From the Acta Lakota Museum at St. Joseph's Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota.  We have visited the Acta Lakota Museum and we recommend it to you.

Language Guide Want to learn alphabets and vocabulary words from other languages? "LanguageGuide.org offers free sound integrated resources for learning languages." The site features pictures of various things with written and spoken names in several languages. Words are pronounced by volunteer native speakers. Current languages are English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. Sponsored by Language Guide, a registered non-profit organization, the site is free to use but they do ask for donations. Uses QuickTime.

Lewis and Clark- The PBS site. Includes teacher resources.

National Geographic's Lewis and Clark site, with interactive map. NG also has an (even more) kid-focused L & C site.

Liberty! Includes the Road to Revolution activity. From PBS.

Liberty's Kids! Great companion site for the TV series shown on PBS.

Maps4Kids  "Data is available on every State in the US, as well as for every Country in the world ! Maps4Kids.com is a great resource for fast facts about places in our world. The Top 10 page shows you the highest, longest, most populous."

My Wonderful World "Geography is more than places on a map. It's global connections and incredible creatures. It's people and cultures, economics and politics. And it's essential to understanding our interconnected world." Thanks, Tessia.

National Geographic Kids "Features different people, animals, and places each month with facts, games, activities, and related links." Well, hey, it's National Geographic.  Very educational, and the games are fun, too.

National Geographic Map Machine Zoom in on locations worldwide.

National Geographic Xpeditions Atlas Maps made for printing and copying.

Netstate "Learn About the 50 States! Armadillos to Yellowhammers!" (What about Zap, North Dakota?) Kinda like 50States but different. Besides having a Visit the states window listing all 50 states, this site has a menu of categories on the left side of the main screen that offers tons of information about each state.

Ology from the American Museum of Natural History. We love this site! It covers "Ologies" such as Archaeology, Astronomy, Biodiversity, Earth, Einstein, Genetics, Marine Biology, Paleontology, and Water. The bottom half of the page has links to around 20 activities, experiments, and interviews. Then there's the Highlights section, Ask a Scientist, an Advanced section, and At the Museum. Click on the blue buttons in the At the Museum box. Only part of this great site is shown at a time. Be sure to use the Search box and enter a term like "horse" to find a ton of other information.

Oregon Trail for Elementary Schools Arguably the best Oregon Trail site. Plenty of information and links. Comprehensive overview of life on the Trail.

Oregon Trail - End of the Oregon Trail Anything you would ever want to know about the Oregon Trail, and much more. This huge site could and should be the source of many K-12 lesson plans.

Oregon Trail Links A large list of links to other OT sites.

Panwapa - Where Kids Shape the World. "Panwapa is an imaginary floating island with characters, stories, and global explorations for kids ages 5-9. Panwapa characters introduce kids to concepts of learning about and accepting other cultures. Educators who use Panwapa can create a group on Curriki to extend and comment on the curricular questions which go along with the Panwapa videos, playalong games, and lessons." This site is great! Talking animated characters engage kids and help them choose from a variety of wonderful things to do. You have to check it out, it is great! From the Sesame Street people.

Primary Documents in American History From the Library of Congress, this site covers the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789, and has a Guide to American Historical Documents Online. There is nothing like reading the original documents!

Seterra - Learn Geography "Seterra is a challenging educational geography program with 70 different exercises. Learn about countries, capitals, flags and cities in Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Australia, using outline map exercises!" This is wonderful freeware that really works with kids ages 9 and up - we've used it! From the lady who brought you Sebran!

South Dakota History for kids.  This is the South Dakota 4th Grade state history unit.  Covers prehistory to modern times.

State and County Quick Facts from the US Census Bureau. Tons of facts about US states and their counties.

U.S. Constitution for kids, from usconstitution.net. Separate explanations of the Constitution for: Kindergarten - 3rd Grade, for 4th - 7th Grade, and for 8th - 12th Grade. There is also a Teacher Guide to the material.

Virtual Kimono lets girls design their own kimono! "Here you'll be able to match kimonos with obi and other accessories to create a coordinated look. After you have put together your outfit, you will see a picture of the kimono in a setting where it is usually worn." Nice interactive activity from Kids Web Japan, a great site about Japan for kids.

USS Constitution official home page. Learn about this famous frigate's history, and take a virtual tour of the recently restored ship. Living history.

USS Constitution fights HMS Java. War of 1812, one of several spinoffs of the Napoleonic Wars.

White House Kids' Page Kids' section of the official site.

Women's Suffrage from about.com has a good timeline and many links to more information. In the USA, women could not vote until 1920 (Native Americans could not vote until 1924!)

World Atlas Huge site of geography facts, maps of everywhere! You should check it out. If it has to do with geography, it's in here!

World atlas dot com Huge list of trivia about the world, continents, countries, languages, money, oceans... even gives the weight of continents (how can they tell?)

World War II - The Home Front This is an excellent British site about what it was like to be a child in the UK during World War 2. WW 2 lasted six hard years for the UK, 1939-45. Covers evacuations, The Blitz, bomb shelters, rationing (with Excel game,) what women did, propaganda, music of the era. A section for teachers explains the language arts lessons. We need a site like this for American kids, too. This is from the Snaith Primary School in East Yorkshire, UK, and is one small part of their BIG academic site! One downside - links to other UK WW 2 sites are broken.

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