5409 social-studies results | sort by:
Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustrations - Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Grades
6 to 10tag(s): artists (106), medieval (36), primary sources (157), renaissance (36)
In the Classroom
History and English teachers studying the Medieval time period can show the primary source of the illuminated alphabet script on The Canon of Medicine. Then have students create a mini-bio for themselves, starting with illuminating the first letter of their name. Use this site to study how the power of pictures can enhance text. The Process section explains how the Gutenberg Press used wood blocks or metal cuts along with the letterpress to print a book with images. Have your students view the "Process" part of this site, and look at several books printed in the Gutenberg time period. You may want them to further investigate the workings of the Gutenberg Press and what it took to make a book (materials and time). Then have your students make a simple, illustrated book using a program like Bookemon reviewed here. Have them use a timeline tool such as Time Graphics Timeline Maker, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Shmoop Snoops the Gods - Shmoop
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): greek (46), greeks (45), myths and legends (44), romans (53)
In the Classroom
This site is perfect for use in any history, literature, or social studies class. Use the site to engage your students in the study of mythology. Use the site on an interactive whiteboard to read about a different god each day. Have students work in groups to create a similar site for a god that isn't represented. Since the site is broken down into different areas like, wall, emails and gossip, have students extend the site by creating new content for each area of the site. The site also has a nice collection of photos that can be used in reports or for other projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
NOVA Body and Brain - NOVA/PBS
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): carbon dioxide (9), carbon footprint (8), earth (189), environment (246), human body (98), nuclear energy (20), nutrition (137), solar energy (36), space (252)
In the Classroom
Discover some terrific lessons about a variety of topics. For example, under Environment, find a great lesson for Capturing Carbon: Where Do We Put It? Find background information to understand the material and questions for discussion that can be used with your class. Find additional resources along the side.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
How Our Laws Are Made - Mike Wirth
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): branches of government (70), civics (130), congress (37)
In the Classroom
Use the graphic as an introduction to a detailed discussion. Share the site on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use it to reinforce the process once you've taught the lesson. Encourage students to bookmark it to review or test their understanding. Anyone who teaches civics, government or US history will be able to use this graphic on an interactive whiteboard. For that matter, it should be required viewing for citizens and politicians alike!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Draw Island - DrawIsland.com
Grades
2 to 8tag(s): drawing (57), graphic design (57)
In the Classroom
Allow students to create collaborative drawings through this site as responses to literature. Share the finished products on an interactive whiteboard, projector, or your class website. Have a group of students create a drawing, then another group can use that as a story prompt. Use this site with students in a computer lab (or on laptops) setting to create a drawing of the setting of a story as it is being read aloud. Have students create an online book of images and captions about any topic using saved images withMy Storybook, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
American Indian Response to Environmental Changes - National Museum of the American Indian
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): environment (246), native americans (149), natural resources (34)
In the Classroom
Project this site on an interactive whiteboard and watch the videos on each of the tribes. If you have laptops available, have students navigate on their own. Have the class take the included interactive quizzes to see what they've learned. Group students and have each group read about a different tribe. Then using the online story project planner, have students create a presentation about their tribe that can be uploaded to the site. Be sure to visit the teacher area for lesson plans, links and other resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Lil' Fingers - David Lumerman
Grades
K to 2This site includes advertising.
tag(s): preK (334)
In the Classroom
Show one of the letter videos on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) when teaching letter sounds and formation. Create a link to the site on classroom computers for use as a learning center or allow students to play games on your interactive whiteboard as a center activity. Share this site with parents through your classroom website or newsletter as a resource for alphabet and color practice at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Trello - Fog Creek Software
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (133), graphic organizers (60), organizational skills (91)
In the Classroom
Use this site in the classroom for organizing any long term project such as a research report or collaborative projects. Create a board for each group with a timeline and assign parts for each project. Gradually release the responsibility from one project to the next, asking students to create their own task lists so they learn time management. Teachers of learning support and gifted will love this tool as a way to teach organizational skills. Share it with parents to support their organizationally challenged students. Yearbook or school newspaper advisors may want to consider this site for organizing and assigning tasks. Share this site with your school's PTA as a resource for organizing and planning school events.Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be embedded
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
ThingLink - Thinglink.com
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): bookmarks (34), DAT device agnostic tool (133), game based learning (324), gamification (88), images (275)
In the Classroom
Use digital images of lab experiments or class activities to share on a class wiki or blog, incorporating clickable enhancements that offer additional information. Have students add links, a blog reaction, or an explanation to their project or experiment image. Use the site for making a photography or art portfolio blog. Have students annotate images to explain their work or various techniques they used. World language or ENL/ESL teachers can enhance images by adding links to sound files or other explanations to facilitate better understanding. Use in world language to label items in an image with the correct words in that language. Young students could write simple sentences to practice language skills while explaining about a favorite picture or activity. Use in Science to explain the experiment or in a Consumer Science class to explain cooking or other techniques. Consider creating a class account for student groups to use together. Teachers can create a Thinglink of an image with questions and links that students must investigate to respond as a self-directed learning activity. An image of a tree could have questions and links about types of leaves, photosynthesis, and the seasons, for example. Gifted students could create a collection of annotated images that link to sound files to add "personalities" to science objects (think of the talking trees in the Wizard of Oz) or create an annotated image of a almost anything they research to go beyond regular curriculum they have already mastered: Annotate an image of a food product to link to information about its sources and potential harms. Annotate an image of a campaign poster and "debunk" its claims with links to video clips that show the politician in action, etc. Annotate an advertisement with links to its propaganda techniques. Teens with a sophisticated sense of humor will especially enjoy linking to ironic examples that debunk or offer a satire of the original!Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be embedded
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
CK-12 - CK-12 Foundation
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): atoms (44), cells (82), charts and graphs (183), decades (6), energy (139), equations (128), fractions (174), genetics (84), inequalities (27), landforms (37), measurement (124), oceans (143), organisms (13), periodic table (47), probability (133), pythagorean theorem (19), rocks (43), scientific method (49), seasons (59), solar energy (36), solar system (126), statistics (126), STEM (381), test prep (67), variables (21)
In the Classroom
Introduce CK-12 to your students (and parents) on your interactive whiteboard and demonstrate ways to use the site at home. Be sure to create a link to the site on your class website or blog for easy access at any time. Create an account and upload your own resources and activities to create your own flexbooks for use with students. CK-12 is available in many languages. Use this site with your ESL/ELL students as a supplement to classroom resources.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Mining the Riches of History: Creating Oral Histories - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 9tag(s): interviews (18), local history (12), primary sources (157)
In the Classroom
Mark this in your Favorites as a way to develop information literacy in your classes, even if you no longer have a library/media specialist to help out.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
The Learning Network - The New York Times Company
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): news (223), vocabulary (255), writing prompts (55)
In the Classroom
Share this site on your class web page for students to find challenges or activities. Substitute teachers can always find an appropriate current events or vocabulary/writing activity if there are no lesson plans. English, social studies, and gifted teachers will want to explore the many lesson ideas that draw on current news stories. Find many prompts for student opinion blogs at this site. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, replace pen and paper and have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Weebly, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Exploring Arthurian Legend - Edsitement - National Endowment for the Humanities
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): literature (215), myths and legends (44)
In the Classroom
Written as one lesson to cover 4-7 class periods, this is a great site for showing students how oral history, visual art, writing (both fiction and nonfiction), as well as actual events shape the culture of a society. The stories themselves have a history and in their evolving shape carry the imprint of all the hands though which they have passed. Using the Internet, students can track the growth of a legend like that of King Arthur, from its emergence in the so-called Dark Ages to its arrival on Broadway and the silver screen.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Algalita - Plastic Ocean Pollution - Algalita Marine Research Foundation
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): environment (246), oceans (143), plastics (3), pollution (57)
In the Classroom
Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce this site. Use the Trash Tracker lesson as is or adapt for your own use. Consider having students work in groups of four, and have each group explore a different expedition (listed by year and selected by you). Have the small groups of students investigate the first several days of the selected expedition together. After that, have pairs take notes about what they learn, using Memo Notepad, reviewed here, then have partners compare notes for the days they investigated. Once they've investigated their expedition, remix the groups so you have one student from each of the different expeditions together. Have them share information and determine what was alike and different for each year. Use a graphic organizer or mind mapping tool such as WiseMapping, reviewed here, to help students keep track of the information. Once done have students access the additional resources pages (the blogs will often have more information for the expeditions), and look at the maps. Older students may want to investigate information about careers related to GIS, Conservation, and Marine Biology by using the link at the bottom of the page.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
ClassDojo - Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don
Grades
K to 8Please be aware that ClassDojo falls under the FERPA laws for "directory information" and "educational records." Any school getting funds from the Department of Education (public schools) is required to disclose to parents and obtain written consent to use ClassDojo with their child.
tag(s): behavior (48), classroom management (150), DAT device agnostic tool (133), game based learning (324), gamification (88), Special Needs (45)
In the Classroom
Consider using this program to reward a group of the week. Award points for positive behaviors such as participation, helping others, creativity, hard work, or create your own categories. Using ClassDojo for group behaviors will provide students with immediate feedback if projected on your whiteboard or projector. Use this tool to help your unfocused students stay on task. Share this site with students on the first day of school as you go over class expectations and your behavior plan for your classroom. Use ClassDojo to offer both negative and positive feedback to parents and students.Are you a regular education teacher with special education students mainstreamed into your classroom? Use Class Dojo to privately keep track of student behaviors and send a report to special education teachers or parents. This could be invaluable to a life skills, autistic support, gifted, or emotional support teacher who needs to track the behavior of each student as part of an IEP/GIEP. Alternative ed programs may find this tool very useful, as well, even up through high school.
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Festisite Playing Cards - Festisite
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Upload images of famous historic figures and places to use as flash cards. Have students use these to learn dates and events. Create a deck of cards with your students' images and use to pull a card and call on students. Make a deck of cards with your students' images, laminate, then use for any FACE CARD ONLY card games played in the classroom. Create large format "cards" to make a start of the school year bulletin board with student faces. Use a set of laminated "student" cards to draw groups for small group projects. Make famous person cards to use in a review game where you must tell three facts about the person pictured.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Smore - Shlomi Atar and Gilad Avidan
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): design (77), infographics (73), multimedia (70), posters (46)
In the Classroom
Show students how to embed media into a Smore newsletter to create their own "infographics," transforming and displaying what they have learned from a unit of study. Use your interactive whiteboard and projector to let student groups present a flyer about a book they've read, a news article, or similar. Have them create campaign posters for fictitious candidates as you study the election process. Smore lets you preview as you work, or return later to complete and publish your flyers. Add ready-made graphics, images from files on your computer, or on the web. Offer Smore as one of the project options for your gifted students doing projects beyond the regular curriculum, especially those who are visual/artistic. Since this tool requires membership, you may want to use a teacher account for younger gifted students, and be sure to get written permission from parents!Allow students to create flyers for upcoming events such as Earth Day, Grandparents Day, Father's Day, Mother's Day, birthdays, and anniversaries. Make holiday greetings to share.
Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
World Memory Project - U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): family (53), germany (25), hitler (5), holocaust (42), jews (65), world war 2 (169)
In the Classroom
Challenge your students and transform their learning using a site such as Timeline JS, reviewed here, to create an interactive timeline of individual families' involvements in the Holocaust or of the days of the Holocaust itself. Have interested students create a family tree using documents from this site.Timeline JS offers the option to upload and add photos, videos, audio, Tweets, and Google Maps making it interactive. Make World War II history more real with these actual accounts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Re-Living the Wright Way - Tom Benson - NASA
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): aviation (51), flight (33), gravity (52), inventors and inventions (89), motion (56), newton (23), scientists (72), wright brothers (17)
In the Classroom
This site provides teachers with resources on the topics of Newton's Laws of Motion, The Four Forces of Flight, Lift, Drag, Thrust, Weight, Center of Gravity, Roll, and Pitch. View the videos using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Download the simulations to your classroom computers and have students work in groups to solve them. Have students work cooperatively to complete one of the many activities found on the site like building a model airplane. Students can then conduct an investigation to see whose plane can fly the farthest.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
Chartle - Zygomatic
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): charts and graphs (183), data (212), noregistration (74)
In the Classroom
You will want to play with this tool before using it in class. Use it anywhere numerical data is collected and is best shown in a chart. Collect data in a science, survey, or math class and display it using different graphs to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using each graph type. Use for quick creation and sharing of created graphs. Create charts together easily on an interactive whiteboard when introducing the different types. Have students operate the board while others offer instructions on what to do next. Use graphs to portray different sets of data about a topic in a new and unique way. Use this tool to create graphs and charts for presentations and reports. Make quick charts students can share with others, such as "How I spend my time" and "Places I have visited." During political campaign seasons, create charts to better visualize what the pollsters are saying.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).

Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
Close comment form