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4th Grade Home Page - Kidport
Grades
3 to 5Although some of the activities are not highly interactive, they are well done and could be very useful in the classroom. Some of the pages do have advertisements, but they are not distractive. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
tag(s): addition (227), california (26), gold rush (19), grammar (212), homophones (15), multiplication (211), subtraction (187)
In the Classroom
Check out the unique mix available at this website. Share it with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this site for enrichment, learning stations, or indoor recess options. List this site in your class newsletter and on your class website for students to use for additional practice at home.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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6th Grade Home Page - Kidport
Grades
5 to 7This site offers a variety of interactive elements (online quizzes, interactive maps and diagrams, and other learning exercises). Some of the pages do have advertisements, but they are not distractive. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
tag(s): angles (87), constitution (88), decimals (125), egypt (67), grammar (212), greece (27), presidents (123), rome (26)
In the Classroom
Check out the unique mix available at this website. Share it with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this site for enrichment, learning stations, or as a whole class activity. List this site on your class website for students to use for additional practice at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Use the form at the top of the page to log in, or click here to join TeachersFirst (it's free!).
7th Grade Home Page - Kidport
Grades
6 to 8This site offers a variety of interactive elements (online quizzes, interactive maps and diagrams, and other learning exercises). Some of the pages do have advertisements, but they are not distractive. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
tag(s): angles (87), constitution (88), decimals (125), grammar (212), presidents (123)
In the Classroom
Check out the eclectic mix of activities available at this website. Share it with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this site for enrichment during certain units, learning stations, or as a whole class activity. List this site on your class website for students to use for additional practice at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Election 2016 - Scholastic
Grades
3 to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): elections (73)
In the Classroom
Share the interactives and video clips on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Use the ready to go lesson plans (which include standards) to keep your students informed of election news. With older students, create a class wiki to discuss presidential views and issues.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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How the President Gets Elected - Factmonster
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Have your students follow this guide to create a fictitious candidate. Challenge students to create a blog about their mock candidate. What issues are important to your students? Do any of the IRL (Internet lingo for "in real life") candidates share the same views as the students' mock candidate?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Renewable Energy Laboratory - US Department of Energy
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): ecology (138), energy (207), environment (325)
In the Classroom
Divide the class into groups to read and decide information that should be presented in class. Use the information to make recommendations to their families, school district, or the community for future energy change. Use these discussions to determine how they can best meet energy needs of the future. In government class, ask student groups to prepare a policy statement on energy for a hypothetical political candidate.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ben's Guide to U.S. Government - Government Printing Office
Grades
1 to 12tag(s): constitution (88), franklin (11), states (165)
In the Classroom
With younger grades, use an interactive whiteboard or projector to learn the states' locations with the entire group. This simple site would be great to use in your computer center for individual learning or for some indoor recess enrichment fun. Secondary teachers looking for more than the basics will want to supplement this site with other resources. There is a link for parents and teachers, be sure to take a look!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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If You Were President - Scholastic
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): elections (73), presidents (123)
In the Classroom
If possible, have your students work on individual computers to complete this presidential assignment. Have students print off their newspaper page and share them with the class. Extend the assignment by having them create a newspaper with similar articles about a real presidential candidate and what he/she might do if elected. Use a tool like Printing Press, reviewed here, to create the newspaper.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National First Ladies' Library - National First Ladies' Library
Grades
6 to 12The National First Ladies' Library, located in Canton, Ohio, is dedicated to teaching others about the contributions of the First Ladies of the United States, as well as other notable women in U.S. History. In fact, the library is housed in the former home of Ida Saxton McKinley, the wife of President William McKinley. The Library is both a physical resource, but also a comprehensive virtual library of information. The site contains biographies of US First Ladies, lesson plans, and a searchable timeline. There is an online catalog of the many resources available in the library itself; those who do not live nearby could still use the catalog to identify resources associated with former First Ladies. This site requires Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
tag(s): biographies (91), first ladies (2), presidents (123), women (94)
In the Classroom
These resources might be useful to those doing First Lady biographies for Women's History Month or other famous Americans reports. Students doing more in-depth research for History Day projects will find the online catalog helpful. Check out the link to facts and trivia for a good First Ladies Trivia page.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Field Trip - HUD
Grades
1 to 3tag(s): communities (37)
In the Classroom
Use this during your unit about neighborhoods and community. Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Then either set up a social studies computer station or have students explore on individual computers. If you plan to visit the library or town hall, preview it with a visit to this site. Have your students draw other community buildings and explain their functions by using a map or go floor by floor, as in the library visit. You could even create a class wiki "tour" using digital pictures. You might want to list this site in your class newsletter or on your class website for parents to share with their students.ESL and ELL students learning names for community locations will appreciate this site for helping things come alive. Use this site to increase and strengthen vocabulary. Ask students to compare these locations with parallel offerings in their home communities.
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Play the News Game - Impact Games
Grades
9 to 12To use many features of the site, you must create a membership (requires email). There are many "social" features within the site that make it a potential safety issue if all students are allowed to use it on their own. See ideas for handling these concerns below.
tag(s): news (262)
In the Classroom
Try this site as a regular part of your secondary discussions on current events or choose selected "games" that connect with your current curriculum topic. For example, explore stories from African nations as you study world cultures in Africa.Classroom teachers will want to start by conducting this activity using a whole-class account (use your "extra" email account to create a single account, monitored by you). Use the game to facilitate discussion and build students' global citizenship by allowing them to make choices and see the results. Be sure to talk about the line between fantasy and reality: which parts of these games have actually happened and which are part of the "game" hypotheses. Include the link on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class if you believe they are ready to handle it on their own. Check your school policies on allowing students to participate in online decision making and sharing, and obtain written parent permission before individual students are allowed to log on. As an alternative for students who may not have permission, you can pose some of the same questions and provide newspaper and news magazine articles for background. But you know which tool your students will prefer!
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Digital Vaults - National Archives
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): inventors and inventions (92), primary sources (93)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set for a unit in history or on inventions. Share a collection of images or invention drawings on a projector or whiteboard and ask what the invention will do. Or use the site as the starting point for individual or group projects. After demonstrating on an interactive whiteboard or projector, have students use laptops or lab computers to "collect" resources related to their assigned inventor, decade, or era in American history. Check your school policy regarding accessing student email. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.Students can use their log-ins to collect resources.Since the documents are in the public domain (are not copyrighted), students may also download and use the files as part of other projects, such as video compilations, Powerpoint presentations, or multimedia of any sort. To access the resources in non-Flash format, click the small link to "research this record in ARC" in the detailed view of the item. You can then view and Save As for use elsewhere. Be sure you teach students about copying the URL and relevant information from this ARC page to cite the source and give credit in any presentation they make. This site is excellent for enrichment or projects for the gifted, as well. Include it on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class for students who are working in History Day projects or other assignments for your class.
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ESL Podcasts - Internet TESL Journal
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): listening (87), podcasts (57), stars (64), vocabulary (321), vocabulary development (124)
In the Classroom
Use this page to listen to current events news in simple English. Play them on your speakers for an entire class or provide headphones for individual listening. Have the students try to write the main points of the podcast they listen to and then check their listening against the webpage with the original article. Special education teachers may want to use this resource as an adapted way for students to read and submit weekly current events articles. Mark this site as a favorite on your classroom computer so students can use it during their free time with headphones. Share the link on your teacher web pages for parents and students to access quickly from home, but be sure to suggest that parents of younger students monitor the topics for appropriateness.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Presidential Election Interactive Map and History of the Electoral College - 270 to win
Grades
6 to 12Be aware: during election season, this site opens slowly. But it is well worth the wait.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): college (49), elections (73), electoral college (15)
In the Classroom
Use the site on an interactive whiteboard to illustrate the impact of Electoral College voting on the election of the US President, both today and in the past. Perhaps we will finally raise a generation who completely understands the Electoral College and how it works!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ZIPskinny - ZIPskinny
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): census (19), demographics (19)
In the Classroom
Teachers or students seeking some basic demographic data about their own town or city, or wishing to compare it with another location, will find this site useful. Civics, government, or economics lessons could be enriched with local data which might be compared to the more general information offered by textbooks in answer to the question "How do we compare to this?" Math teachers and reading teachers who teach graphical data analysis might get some mileage out of using the graphs and tables from their own towns or communities for computations rather than using generic information from a textbook. Project the graphs on a whiteboard and have students manipulate to explain the meaning of changes in the visuals. Think of the higher level thinking questions you could generate during a political year! Of course, the terminally curious can probably waste a good hour or two just noodling with the data.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Dangerously Irrelevant: Internet Democracy - Scott McLeod
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
Teachers can use these videos to demonstrate political tactics and help students navigate election promises and propaganda. Because these videos come from YouTube, which does little to monitor its content, content should be carefully previewed before using. Share the site or specific videos on a projector or interactive whiteboard as part of class discussion. If your network permits it, provide a local copy of specific videos for students to critique and compare. They could embed the videos in a wiki and write the critique as a collaborative project with small groups. Or have them present a video to the class as if they were on a campaign staff analyzing the opponent's tactics for a campaign staff meeting.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NPR: Election 2008 - National Public Radio
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Of course, civics and government teachers focus on Presidential elections past and present and will find this site quite useful. Other teachers who regularly do "current events" discussions can also find simple, direct, and up-to-date information that can be used to inform, debate, or share on an interactive whiteboard. Make this site a Favorite and share it on your teacher web page for students to use for research on individual candidate platforms. Encourage students to check the site regularly for updates. Use it to help students stage a mock debate or mock election.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kidlink - Kidlink
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Students need not have their own email to use this site. Kidlink explains that they are permitted to use the teacher's email address (which allows you to monitor their activities, as well). You might want to use your "extra" email account. Set up accounts for your students to communicate in your world language class or as part of your study of other continents. With younger students, you may want to communicate as a whole-class activity, composing on a projector or interactive whiteboard.If your school policies limit your ability to use such a site, see the FAQ information and ready-to-go presentation explaining Kidlink. Share it with your principal and parents. ALWAYS get written parent permission when sharing student work/ideas online.
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Statistics - Cast Your Vote! - Annenberg Media
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): critical thinking (120), elections (73), politics (97), statistics (127)
In the Classroom
What a fabulous way to integrate math, government, and current events! Use this activity as an anticipatory set to an election unit or a statistics lesson. Once the lesson is completed, extend the activities by looking at current polls on elections in your area (or national elections). Have students work in small groups to analyze and find possible "loopholes" in the meaning and "spin" of poll data.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Exploring Africa - Michigan State University
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
This website is literally a textbook online. The information is ready to go and easy to use. It may not be possible to cover all of the information included in this extensive website. Pick and choose the modules that will be useful in your own classroom. Modules can easily be used independently and include detailed teacher notes, evaluations, printable pages, and more. Many of the a ctivities will work well using technology, though the plans do not specify this. For example: Share some of the maps on your interactive whiteboard or have students draw some of their "preconceived notions" about Africa on the whiteboard as part of the introductory image activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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