NEW 2015 RESOURCES
Instructional Materials in Social Studies
Below are the CLN "Theme Pages" which focus on specific topics within Social Studies.
CLN's theme pages are collections of useful Internet educational resources within
a narrow curricular topic and contain links to two types of information. Students
and teachers will find curricular resources (information, content...) to help
them learn about this topic. In addition, there are links to instructional materials
(lesson plans) which will help teachers provide instruction in this theme.
Ancient Civilizations Theme Page
Biomes Theme Pages
Countries Theme Page
Current Events Theme Page
Holocaust Theme Page
Hunger Theme Page
Mapping Theme Page
Over Population Theme Page
Sustainable Development Theme Page
General Social Studies Resources
Here are a number of links to other Internet resources which contain information
and/or other links related to Social Studies. Please read our
Curricular Exchange: Social Studies
- Mini lesson plans from Academy One/Columbia Education Center.
Search: Social Studies
- Houghton Mifflin's Education Place Activity Search gives teachers access
to a wide number of K-12 traditional (i.e., not Internet) activities. It
is possible to search for activities by curriculum areas and/or grade levels,
or browse the activities by themes.
- AskERIC Lesson Plans - Social Studies
- Numerous lesson plans in Anthropology, Civics, Current events, Economics,
Geography, Government, History, Psychology, Sociology, World history and
cultures covering various grade ranges in K-12.
- Cardboard Cognition
- A collection of card and board games organized by subject and grade levels
- Chilliwack Senior Secondary School Social Studies Department
- Teachers of CSSS have put their lesson resources online, including strategies
for conducting debates, mock trials, group presentations, journals and collages.
Their web site also has links to other social studies lesson plan sites
on the web.
- The site has support for economics education of all forms, including
curricular resources, data, and links to other sites. Instructional materials
and lesson ideas are also included.
- Economics and Geography Lessons for 32 Children's Books
- Lesson plans for teaching grade 1-5 students geography and economics
concepts within the study of popular children's books.
- Encarta Lesson Collection: Social Studies
- Select "Social Studies" on their Lesson Collection Page to find several
hundred lesson plans. These are organized into over a dozen subcategories.
- FGA Lesson Plans
- The Florida Geographic Alliance offers free lesson plans. Unfortunately,
they're organized by the year of contribution rather than by title and so
you'll face additional time finding what you want.
- Five Times Five: Five Activities for Teaching Geography's Five Themes
- Education World presents 25 geography learning activities for students
across the grades.
- Grade 12 Provincial Examinations
- Full information on the BC Grade 12 provincial examinations, including
copies of previous exams and their keys (e.g., History, Geography), exam
timetables, exam results, holistic scoring guides, reports to schools and
- Information Technology Lesson Plans Database
- This database contains over a hundred lesson plans designed and tested
by BC educators for teachers in gradesK-10. The lesson plans integrate Information
Technology concepts within traditional subject areas. Use the search engine
to find the lessons for a particular subject area. The engine will also
allow you to search by grade level, setting (e.g., classroom, lab), time
to complete the level, and expertise level.
- Integrated Resource Packages (IRPs)
- These Integrated Resource Packages (IRPs) provide some of the basic information
that teachers will require to implement the BC Ministry of Education Social
Studies curricula in K-12.
Kodak Lesson Plans: Community Studies
- More than a dozen lesson plans on Community Studies, all of which use
photography in some respect.
- Learning Space (LS) Social Studies: WWW Research Lessons
- One of the ways to integrate the Internet into your classroom is by using
it as a source of current curricular information. Having students conduct
research on the WWW is an effective and relevant learning activity but teachers
may feel at a loss as to what kind of questions students should be given
to research. This site contains over 25 examples of Social Studies research
questions (organized by grade levels) which pose motivating, genuine problems
or open-ended real life problems whose solutions and answers are not easily
found (some of which are US content-based). In addition, there is a step-by-step
guide to creating your own research questions.
Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies
- Over 75 annotated and alphabetized links to Social Studies lesson collections.
Plans for Technology
- This site has a database of over 200 technology-based lesson plans developed
by Florida educators. Known as T'NT (Technology 'Nformation for Teachers),
the site can be searched by grade level, subject, or key word. Lessons allow
subject area teachers to incorporate technology within business, computing,
fine arts, guidance/health (including safety), language arts, math, science,
and social studies subject areas.
- The National Geographic Society has over a hundred free, downloadable
lesson plans for teachers. They're organized by subject (see Geography or
Social Studies) or searchable by subject, grade level or keyword.
Nebraska K-12 Social Studies Framework
- This site contains social studies lessons plans organized along the themes
of civic ideals and practices; culture, global connections; individual development
and identity; individuals, groups and institutions; people, places and environments;
power, authority and governance; production, distribution and consumption;
science, technology and society; and time, continuity, and change.
York Times Learning Network
- These lesson plans use New York Times articles as a starting point.
Your Views to the Letter Grade 6-12 students "examine the role of
the Letters to the Editor section of the newspaper as an outlet for
the expression of opinions and ideas." While the examples and references
within this lesson plan may be dated by the time you use it, more current
references could be substituted.
Printed Page to Home Page Grade 6-12 students compare and contrast,
in small groups, the print and the on-line versions of local newspapers,
and in the process, determine the similarities and differences between
these two versions of the same paper.
World, My Own Island: How Are They Connected?
- This teaching unit for grade six students employs a simulation game and
project to challenge students to learn about some problems facing developing
countries. This is a multi-disciplinary unit integrating science, social
studies, arts, math, and language arts.
Science Lesson Plans
- A variety of lesson plans on Social Sciences from Georgia College.
- This is a meta-list of links to other sites which contain lessons plans,
classroom projects, and interactive activities for elementary teachers of
Studies Lesson Plans
- This link will take you directly to a sub-list of links to about 100
social studies lesson plans. The sector is part of a larger list called
"The Lesson Plans Page." The lessons aren't particularly well described,
there are a lot of US content lessons, and the ads can be a nuisance; however
the sheer quantity of direct links to actual lesson plans is probably worth
- LETSNet (Learning Exchange for Teachers and Students through the Internet)
is designed to help teachers understand the web and find ways to make effective
use of web resources in the classroom. This link is to their Social Studies
lesson plans section containing about 20 teaching units or student activities.
Helping Teachers: Social Studies
- The Teachers Helping Teachers web site is a collection of lesson plans
submitted by practicing teachers. New lessons are added to a cumulative
Social Studies file throughout the school year so be prepared for some long
Ideas for Primary Teachers
- Looking for social studies ideas, activities or worksheets for elementary
students? You'll find a variety at this site organized under the subject
heading of Geography and History. You'll also find a feature titled "Time-Fillers".
This is a collection of short activities which can be used within a number
of subject areas to fill a few spare moments during the day.
Note: The sites listed above all have lesson plans/activities for the Social
Studies classroom teacher. For other resources in this subject area (e.g.,
curricular content or theme pages), click the "previous screen" button below.
Or, click here
if you wish
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resources in all of our subjects.