USA Resources for Parents & Teachers

Sites for anyone involved with kids and looking for instructional materials about the United States.

Resources in this category:

Africans in America
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html

Learn all about the history of Africans in America at this educational site. It is a great resource ifyou are doing any type of report on American history from the 1400s to the mid-1800s.

American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/

A multimedia site put together by the Library of Congress. Learn about the history of the United States through pictures, documents, movies, maps, and sound recordings. You can listen to music from the 1930s, look at pictures taken during the Civil War, and see and hear lots of other fun things.

American Memory- The Learning Page...especially for teachers
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/

This is your "front door" to the Library of Congress’s American Memory collections. There are lesson plans in a wide variety of subjects in multiple eras of American history for all grade levels plus other activities involving the collections.

The American Presidency:A Glorious Burden
http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/index.html

"This exhibition tells the story of the American presidency through objects representing the lives and times of the country's presidents. The site includes an interactive timeline, hands-on activities, reference resources, teacher materials, and more. Flash 5 plug-in recommended."

Ben Franklin: Glimpses of the Man
http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/

Did you know that Ben Franklin was a weatherman as well as an accomplished musician? Find out all about this famous American at this site. Teachers can find classroom resources as well.

Celebrating America's Freedoms
http://www1.va.gov/opa/feature/celebrate/index.htm

Learn about the origins of such American holidays as Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. You can find out about how the words of the Pledge of Allegiance have changed over the years or learn about the national cemeteries. This site looks at some of the U.S.'s most important symbols and observances. Suggestions for teaching activities are also included.

Colonial Williamsburg
http://www.history.org/

"Colonial Williamsburg is the world's largest outdoor living history museum, located in Williamsburg, Virginia, about 150 miles south ofWashington, D.C., USA." This website captures the history and information of Williamsburg through educational resources, electronic field trips, teacher resources, lesson plans, as well as providing reference and research sources, and museum exhibition information.

The Digital Classroom
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/index.html

The Digital Classroom "provides materials from the National Archives and methods for teaching with primary sources." Includes online images of primary documents relating to events in American history with lesson plans and activities, as well as activities for learning to do research at the NARA site, educational materials published by NARA, and information on professional development workshops and institutes at NARA for eduators.

Donner Online
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/donner/

"The plight of the Donner Party remains one of the most poignant episodes in the history of westward expansion during the 19th Century. Donner Online is a type of Web-based activity in which you learn about a topic by collecting information, images, and insights from the Internet, and then you "paste" them into a multimedia Scrapbook (a HyperStudio stack or a Web page) to share your learning with others.

Education First: Black History Activities
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/BHM/AfroAm.html

"The following six Web sites were created as models to suggest ways to integrate the World Wide Web and videoconferencing into classroom learning. African-American History was chosen as a topic because of its importance, popularity and the wealth of Internet resources available on the topic. What we hope to add to this richness are some specific strategies for integrating the Web into learning. So rather than merely send learners to a Web site, we've arranged separate formats designed to support different kinds of learning."

Educator's Learning Page of the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/

Through a variety of Educators' Programs, the Library of Congress Learning Page shows educators how they can use American Memory resources in the classroom.

Encarta's African American History
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761595158/African_Americ...

"This feature is dedicated to the celebration of African-American achievers." The site has achievers in science, the arts, education, literature, politics and sports.

Exploring Florida
http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/default.htm

"A social studies resource for students and teachers that includes thousands of Florida resources in all subject areas." And be sure to check out another useful research category at Exploring Florida: Florida Then and Now, about the history of the state.

KidZone Geography - United States
http://www.kidzone.ws/geography/usa/

Print out worksheets and coloring pages for the emblems of every state. These include the state’s flag, bird, flower and map. There are directions for correct color placement and facts about each item.

Lakota Winter Counts Online Exhibit
http://wintercounts.si.edu/index.html

See, listen, and learn about Winter Counts: the history of important events recorded by the Lakota. You will learn about the history and social structure of the Lakota, a native people also known as Teton or Western Sioux.

The Mayflower Web Pages
http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/

Learn the names of all the passengers on the Mayflower. This siteoffers lots of information not only about the Mayflower, but also such topics as the first Thanksgiving, Native Americans, clothing of the Pilgrims and much more.

Project WhistleStop
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/

"Project WhistleStop is funded in part by a United States Technology Innovation Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. ... Project WhistleStop will create a virtual community of teachers and students engaged in authentic and challenging learning projects supported by new teaching and technology resources built on the original source materials of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum."

Remaking America: Contemporary U.S. Immigration
http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1996/4/

This diverse array of curriculum guides created by are designed for both middle school and high school students. These teachers guides explore the historical and cultural backgrounds of newcomers to the United States, their motives for emigrating, their legal statuses and the modes of their incorporation into U. S. society.

SCORE History/Social Science
http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/

SCORE is the Schools of California Online Resources for Education. This site has links to lesson plans for grades K-12 on U.S. and World history and geography as well as social studies concepts such as citizenship and government. There are also descriptions of California Social Science Standards and Assessments.

Teach PA History: lesson plans for teachers.
http://www.explorepahistory.com/teach.php

This site offers lessons plans about Pennsylvania history for teachers. Choose criteria (era, region, story name, or discipline), and receive specific titles (such as Underground Railroad or Jazz in Pennsylvania) for expanding knowledge abotu Pennsylvania's heritage. Plans are available for elementary, middle school, and high school levels.

The Mitten: Topics and Teacher Supplements
http://www.michiganhistorymag.com/kids/mitten_topics.html

"The Mitten is a 4-page, full-color reader that covers important topics from Michigan's past. A corresponding teacher supplement is available with lesson plan ideas."

The Underground Railroad
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/

"You are a slave. Your body, your time, your very breath belong to a farmer in 1850s Maryland. Six long days a week you tend his fields and make him rich. You have never tasted freedom. You never expect to. And yet . . . your soul lights up when you hear whispers of attempted escape. Freedom means a hard, dangerous trek. Do you try it?"

United States History Documents
http://wiretap.area.com/Gopher/Gov/US-History/

This is a text-only site where you can find many documents that are important in US history from the Declaration of Independence to papers from World War II.

USA State Maps and Quizzes
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/statesbw/

Print out maps for each state along with quizzes to be answered with the map.