Top 10 Social Studies Websites for the Elementary Classroom

This week we are looking at Social Studies websites.  Here is a list of my favorite 10 websites to use in elementary classrooms when we are studying History, Government, and Geography.

1.) Social Studies for Kids – This website includes a collection of articles on current events, historical events and other great Social Studies topics.

2.) Ducksters – History & Geography – Ducksters is a great website for Science and Social Studies, but the Social Studies part is particularly fabulous.  Each category has tons of links to additional information and subcategories.  This is a great place to start students out when working on a research project.

3.) BBC History for Kids – BBC has amazing educational resources for all subjects, but their history section is particularly fabulous.  This site has games that help students explore ancient history, British history, world wars, and historical figures from tons of different time periods.

4.) Timeline Maker – Generate a timeline with up to twelve events by simply inserting dates and descriptions in chronological order.  This timeline can then be printed and used in class.

5.) Google Earth – How helpful is an online interactive globe where you can zoom into mountains, valleys and oceans?  So many ways this can be helpful with geography, topography and helping students build a strong base in understanding where history happened and why.  A perfect website to include in a unit on Maps & Globes

6.) Time for Kids – An online newspaper for kids with current event articles, videos, photos, etc. is a great source for Social Studies class.  In fact, I wrote an entirely separate blog post about Time for Kids awhile back, but it is a worthy addition to this list as well.

7.) World Atlas – This website provides an amazing interactive atlas.  Students begin at a world map.  If they click on a continent, they will be taken to a continent specific map as well as information about that specific continent.  Then, within the continent map, they can click on each country name and be taken to a country specific map with information about that specific country.  Talk about a great starting place for a Country Study Project, huh?

8.) Garden of Praise – Biographies for Kids – This website includes biographies of tons of important individuals from history written specifically for kids.  Many of the biographies include links to additional reference material on the person, definitions of key vocabulary from the biography and video clips about the person in the biography.

9.)  Congress for Kids – This amazing site has great information and diagrams to describe the creation of the United States government and the process of how each branch works.

10.) Ben’s Guide – This is a US government based site with lots of information about the services provided by the government, processes used to create laws and elect representatives.  The site is conveniently broken down by grade levels to make differentiation easier.  

For more resources to integrate technology into your classroom, check out my Technology Integration Kit.

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