Social Science section of Good Sites for Kids!

Ancient History

We're going to try dividing these sites up into Geography (physical, political, and cultural) and History (all kinds except Ancient). So here we go!

Geography Sites

History Sites

Miscellaneous Sites

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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.

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.

Atlapedia Like an online almanac, with country info and stats, political and regional maps, and downloadable maps.

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

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, and the quizzes are very good.

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

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.

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.

Lat-Long.com "Search More Than 2 million U.S. Locations in an Instant! Search More than 2 Million Places: Parks, cemeteries, bridges and post offices. Find these and more on Lat-Long.com." This site is a list of all 50 US states. You can click on a state and check out its features by category (did you know South Dakota has 91 canals?) or you can search by item and a state pulldown menu from the main page (example: glaciers in Alaska.) Google Maps display each item. Latitudes and longitudes are given in tradish degrees, minutes, and seconds; also in decimal degrees.

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.

Native Words Native Warriors. The story of the Code Talkers in World Wars One and Two, from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. Well done site tells the story of these good, brave men, as told by the Code Talkers themselves. Plenty of photos and explanations.

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.

Oglala Lakota College A tribally controlled institution serving the educational needs of the Lakota Oyate, focused on the Pine Ridge reservation. Use their History and Culture menu to access their excellent Oglala culture site, Lakota Archives, their large collection of Lakota language audio files, and much more.

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.

Screenshot from the classic MECC Oregon Trail Game

Oregon Trail for Elementary Schools Arguably the best Oregon Trail site. Plenty of information and links. Comprehensive overview of life on the Trail. William has a broken arm. You have died of desentery.

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. You should have bought more ~~baking soda~~ saleratus. You do not have an extra wagon wheel, so you must trade for one.

Oregon Trail Links A large list of links to other OT sites. If you continue hunting in this area, game will become scarce.

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.

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 nice lady in Sweden who brought you Sebran!

What's my latitude and longitude? Go to this site and it will show you your latitude and longitude, based on your IP address. This could be useful as an introduction/attention step for a lesson on lat & long. Credit to David Stoline and reddit.

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?)

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Abraham Lincoln Research Site Valuable source since 1996! "I am not an author or an historian; rather I am a former American history teacher who enjoys researching Abraham Lincoln's life and accomplishments. If you have a specific Lincoln question that you would like me to research for you, please e-mail me. NOTE: The three main sections of this website are the Abraham Lincoln Research Site, Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination, and the Mary Todd Lincoln Research Site. For additional Lincoln information, please see my page titled Abraham Lincoln Links." Kudos to Roger Norton, Webmaster!

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.

Castles on the Web "offers an extensive database of all things Castle related including a castle photo gallery, free castle web pages, hundreds of castle links, castle site of the day, castles for kids and more!" For our favorite trio of 11 year old castle freaks, and a few hundred thousand more like them.

D-Day There are so many resources on the web about this pivotal event in world history, the Allied invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944. This one is a very good resource from the BBC, with graphics.

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

Winslow Homer "Prisoners at the Front" 1863. Union Brigadier General Francis Barlow, Medal of Honor, seven Purple Hearts, talks to Confederate prisoners.

Painting by Winslow Homer, "Prisoners at the Front" (1863) Union Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow talks with Confederate prisoners of war. Badly wounded several times, Barlow ended the war as a Major General. Later in life, as Attorney General of the State of New York, Barlow successfully prosecuted Boss Tweed and broke the Tammany Hall gang. A famous American painter, Homer was a combat artist during the war. This is one of many paintings he drew from sketches he had made during the action.

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

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 with the Royal Navy today! Use the 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 mathematics classes.

The Ice Trade In this history game set in the 1800s, students send 10 ships loaded with ice from New England to Florida, Brazil, or India. Can you turn a profit in 10 turns?

Jamestown Settlement "In 1607, 13 years before the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts, a group of 104 English men and boys began a settlement on the banks of Virginia's James River..." Well done site explores the history, the different peoples - native, European, and African - and the world of 1607. YouTube videos greatly enhance learning.

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' View of World War II and the 1940s Era from the Spring Hill Elementary School in Kansas, this older site (2000-2001) works to bring the World War II era to life for contemporary kids. Made by 5th graders and their teachers. Interviews with veterans and civilians alike brings a unique touch. Also covers fashions, entertainment, toys and games, and has a timeline. Thanks, Mrs. Vopat and Mrs. Jones, and the Jr. Ikes Teams.

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

Oregon Trail Links A large list of links to other OT sites. If you continue hunting in this area, game will become scarce.

Pearl Harbor Lesson Plans US Navy official site. "Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, we all have been drawn to examine similar events in our past. The lesson plans provided for you will help you and your students to understand what happened on December 7, 1941. Beginning with the first American treaty with Japan in 1854 though the attacks in 1941, students will use primary sources to synthesize information and draw conclusions about the role of the U.S. Navy in foreign policy and to understand how people in 1941 reacted to the tragic bombing of Pearl Harbor. These lesson plans are geared towards upper middle and high school students. You may download and reproduce everything available. We encourage you to use these lesson plans as pre-museum visit materials."

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!

REVOLUTIONARY WAR: Birth Of A Nation "Welcome to Historycentral's Revolutionary War site.This is the most complete site on the web on the Revolutionary War. The section on the 'Causes of the War' traces the events that led to the American Declaration of Independence. The 'Battle' and 'Main Event' sections tell the story of all the major battles of the war. Many battle entries come with a narrated multimedia presentation that last up to three minutes. A NEW SECTION chronicles many of the major legends and myths of the war. Each story comes with the written text as well as a multimedia presentation; perfect for students of all ages. For those who want to learn more, we have added sections on the Economics, Daily Life and Arts of the period. Our site includes extensive first-hand accounts of battles, along with many other primary source documents. Our Student Guide lists the important terms from this period. Our Teacher's Guide includes many lesson plans with resource materials and ideas on how to teach the American Revolution." Going in Social Studies > History.

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

Traitors, Seamstresses, and Generals: Voices of the American Revolution American Revolution ThinkQuest site. Well organized, tons of information. Fits very well with any classroom study of the Revolution. Packed with resources and activities. Succinctly stated: One of the best ThinkQuests we have ever seen.

US Presidents List Lists all US Presidents and Vice Presidents (wow) with links to tons of facts about them. A good gotta-have source of information.

Victorian Britain from BBC Primary History. Be a kid in the time of Victoria! Rich kids were warmly dressed, well fed, and went to school. Poor kids wore rags, were half starved, and went to work as coal miners and factory workers. See their toys and how kids lived in this split society. Check out the Activities and the Fun Facts, too.

USS Constitution fights HMS Java in War of 1812

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 off the coast of Brazil. War of 1812, one of several spinoffs of the Napoleonic Wars.

We Choose The Moon is an interactive experience recreating the historic Apollo 11 mission to the Moon in real time. Once where only three men made the trip, now millions can. Live event begins 8:02 AM EDT July 16, 2009, with launch at 9:32 a.m., exactly 40 years after Apollo 11 lifted off. Going in Astronomy, Social Studies, and Technology.

White House Kids' Page Improved, spiffed-up and modernized. 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 War 2 from BBC Primary History. Be a British kid in the time of World War 2 in Britain. Very good, concise, fact-filled, great to explore this site. Be a history detective checking out time capsules. Shop for food in 1943 with a ration book. Explore a wartime home with bomb shelters. Read letters. Find out what it was like to be evacuated on a train. What was The Blitz?

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.

Yorktown Victory Center "On October 19, 1781, the decisive military campaign of the American Revolution culminated with the British surrender to combined American and French forces under the command of George Washington. The Siege of Yorktown effectively ended the six-year struggle of the Revolutionary War and set the stage for a new government and nation." The best parts for online learning are the Yorktown Victory chronology, Yorktown and American Independence, and Militia in the Revolutionary War.

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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.

Sampler of Social Studies for gr6-8/11-13yr From Curriki! "The curriculum resources contained in this folder represent a selection of high-quality materials from the Curriki repository for grades 6-8/ages 11-13 in Social Studies." Everything from a Middle Ages webquest to traditional Indian music to Westward Expansion to Japanese culture, and more, is in this selection.