Technology in Your Classroom : Hot Websites :
Hot Websites November-December 2006
By Linda Lindroth
These online resources will enrich your social studies curriculum
Use a ready-made template or create your own scrapbook pages to submit.
Engage your students in a patriotic community service project and a study of our nation's most famous expedition with these two social studies web resources.
Connect with the Troops
www.connectwiththetroops.com
Enhance your writing curriculum and build good citizenship skills with this community service project from Connect and Join. "Connect with the Troops" is a free portal with a wide range of resources to help teachers create class scrapbook pages in support of our troops. The pages can then be contributed to the World's Largest Scrapbook, to be delivered to U.S. troops in December.
Detailed lesson plans connect the curriculum to a study of patriotism. Lesson topics include The Big, Bad Wolf lesson for writing letters to favorite fairy tale characters, a Graphing Landmarks activity on national monuments, the Hometown Brochure activity and a web trip to The Library of Congress. Lessons cover standards, time needed, materials, detailed procedures, assessment suggestions or a complete assessment rubric. There are even suggestions for how to go about inviting a local congressperson to speak with the class.
Students can design their own pages or choose from the assortment of free 8-1/2" x 11" scrapbook-page templates available in PDF format. Students then add pictures and their own messages and decorations.
Printed scrapbook pages should be mailed to Felicia Robinson, Connect and Join, P.O. Box 5170, Columbia, SC 29250. Digital versions, in PDF, should be e-mailed to frobinson@connectandjoin.com
For more information about the World's Largest Scrapbook or to find out more about the Connect and Join classroom subscription for creating a class web portal, call 888-729-9828 or visit www.connectwiththetroops.com
Lewis and Clark
www.pbs.org/lewisandclark
The bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition spans 2004-2006. This website is a rich resource for a study of the famous expedition.
Expedition timeline. Over the 2-1/2- year journey from St. Louis to the Pacific and back, there are many significant historical dates.
- May 14, 1804 – Expedition begins
- November 4, 1804 – Sacagawea joins the expedition
- November, 1805 – Reach the Pacific Ocean, having traveled 4,162 miles
- November 24, 1805 – The vote for where to spend the winter includes votes by Sacagawea and York, a slave of Clark
- September 23, 1806 – Return to St. Louis
- November, 1806 – Travel the United States as national heroes
Rich instructional resources. The rich historical resources gathered for this site will give an instructional depth to the study of American history. There is an extensive Native Americans database with detailed background for all the Indian tribes encountered on the expedition. The Archive is a comprehensive collection of maps, journals and a timeline of the expedition. Into the Unknown and Interactive Trail Map gives students an opportunity to "be on the trail" in a series of decision-making simulations. Living History lets students hear historical experts' thoughts about and research on the expedition.
The cross-curricular lessons are the strength of this resource. Each lesson includes PDF student activity pages, detailed procedures and related resources for bringing the Lewis and Clark expedition to life in the classroom. My favorites – "Are We There Yet?" for mapping the expedition distances and "Documenting an Historic Journey."
Califone KidsKey-- Tech Spotlight
This colorful keyboard from Califone was designed with the younger student in mind. The color-coded keys make it easy for preK-2 students to find the vowels (orange keys), consonants (yellow keys), numbers (red keys) and computer function keys (green keys). Made of ABS plastic, the keyboard is durable enough for the eager fingers of toddlers right up through primary.
The standard QWERTY layout makes it easy to transition to regular keyboarding. Extra function keys across the top with icons make standard operations – like opening a file, saving a file and printing – easy for young users. This is a great addition to any primary classroom.
For more information on Kidskey, or to see the Mini Mouse, made for smaller hands, visit www.califone.com or call 800-722-0500. Kidskey, $29, Mini Mouse, $10.
Linda K. Lindroth is Teaching K-8's technology editor and website coordinator, and a technology resource teacher at Russell Cave Elementary School in Lexington, KY.
Updated November 1, 2007
November/December, 2006 Volume 37, Number 3
