Curriculum and Teaching Resources: Social Studies

The professioinal association for social studies teachers.

The main page for teachers at Library of Congress. See next two links for more resources.

A gateway to primary source material related to US history and culture for secondary level.

Primary source materials for younger students.

A resource from the National Council on Economic Education, including lesson materials, data sources, current events, and weblinks for K-12 teachers and students.

Ever wonder what the Vikings ate when they set out to explore the world? Food history provides fascinating information about human and cultural development.

Resources to support programming on the History Channel.

From the University of Houston, this site has an online interactive textbook, and a multitude of links for teaching American history.

Sites listed here are rated for usefulness and accuracy. Use the headings on the left side to navigate or the pull-down box (upper right) to jump to a particular section.

Also known at the National History Education Clearinghouse, this site has links for historical content, best practices, lesson plans, videos, and more.

Search or browse for lessons and resources at the top. Used to be strong on standards allignment, not so much now.

This site has a variety of teaching units that correlate with the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government. The units also link to primary source documents where appropriate. Also check out the Docs Teach link for activities using primary sources.

This site has the text of 100 milestone documents of American history, as well as tools for educators who teach history. It is a cooperative project of the National Archives, National History Day, the History Channel and others.

Developed by the National Museum of American History, this has lesson plans and activities, interactive media, and artifacts. Content is alligned with the national history standards.

A project of the Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, this site provides resources to prompt critical thinking about social issues of the day for grades K-12.

Teaching materials for K-5 and 6-12 levels. This site is gearing up for release of information for the 2010 census.

Lesson plans with a connection to a historic site on the National Register of Historic Places. the collection is browsable by location, theme, time period, and allignment with national history or NCSS standards.

Teaching about the Holocaust is a challenge for any person. Go here for a large collection of teacher and student resources.

This is a gathering place for primary source material in print, audio, or video form. You must open a free account to have full access to all resources, but you can sample what's available without signing up.

In this time of economic uncertainty, perhaps it would be helpful to look back and learn from the Great Depression. This site is housed at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and includes a curriculum designed to provide teachers with economic lessons that they can share with their students to help them understand this significant experience in U.S. history.

A portal to world history websites developed by the Center for History and New Media. High school level.

From the Middle East Policy Council, this site includes a myriad of resources on topics including: geography, history, people and languages, religion, culture, and more.

The mission of the ALSC is to collect, analyze, evaluate, create and disseminate labor history and labor studies curricula and related materials, aligned to the various state and national standards, to kindergarten through 12th grade teachers nationwide. They will include such areas as the history, organization, activities, and issues affecting the labor movement and the political, economic, and cultural aspects of workers and their unions.

This site includes self contained lessons related to the constitution, and three branches of government. Targeted to junior high/middle school, it also includes a variety of online games.

Scroll down for the latest version of the Social Studies Standards. These go into effect in 2014.

Look under links for MN Standards and Curriculum for rich resources to use in your classroom K-12.

The best site for resources on Minnesota history.

Online resources to supplement the Northern Lights curriculum.

This site will walk students through the process of doing History Day research.

The 80-page reference guide is a valuable resource for educating students about citizenship, Minnesota facts, state symbols, historic documents, and elected officials.

Provided by the Secretary of State, this site has information on state symbols, state history, state government, etc.

Developed by the Minnesota History Center and partners, MNopedia is an online encyclopedia about Minnesota history. Entries include narrative text, images or related media, chronology points, and a bibliography. Historical eras are alligned with the Minnesota Social Studies Standards.

Includes thousands of digitized historical images and documents from around the state. Users can browse by collection, topic, or region, or use the search function (advanced has many options).

Written by Minnesota educators, these guides are designed to assist other teachers in using the photos, maps, and other documents in Minnesota Reflections to meet academic standards.

This site is provided by the Government Printing Office, and has K-12 games and activities based on primary documents about US government.

Online tutorials and quizzes for grades 4-12.

A portal site with approximately 1,200 links to federal government agencies that have resources for teaching a variety of subjects (not limited to social studies). For K-5 and 6-8 as well as teachers.

Coins are history in your pocket (H.I.P). This site has games, cartoons, a time machine, and resources for teachers.

Games, videos, stories and other activities for kids here.

Interactive satellite, birds-eye, road and street maps.

A nice collection of online historical and outline maps.

The National Map is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. Explore what's available using the links on the left side.

A project of the Newbery Library, this site provides high quality images of historical maps. Look under "Instructions for Teachers" for a table showing alignment with NCSS standards.

The focus of Map Collections is Americana and Cartographic Treasures of the Library of Congress. These images were created from maps and atlases and, in general, are restricted to items that are not covered by copyright protection.
Map Collections is organized according to seven major categories: cities and towns, conservation and environment, discovery and exploration, cultural landscapes, military battles and campaigns, transportation and communication, and general maps.

Excellent source for today's newspaper headlines from around the world.

This is the teacher resource page to accompany the Time for Kids magazine and website (http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids).