United States Trivia Geo Dart Game

Oh MY, this was SO MUCH fun!


USA States Trivia

I tried to embed the game but it didn't work because you can't see the whole game in my blog format so go to the link to play.


My first score was...okay, shoot, I missed copying down my first score so I will have to give you my second one. You are looking at a geological map of the United States. They will give you a state and you have to "pin it" as quickly as you can. Speed counts and you simply have to nail it somewhere within the state boundaries. If you are out, it calculates how far away you are. Points are awarded. You can shift the map around if necessary but that is a little tricky. I found that it was better to zoom in and out to get Alaska and Hawaii. Great visual spatial test. This right brainer loved it!

I think you can make up your own geography games with this UMapper but I haven't quite got that figured out yet. In the mean time, see if you can beat my score! Post your first or second score if you dare!
441583

Our Story Interactive

 American History Stories and Activities You can do Together!

This website offers a variety of interesting information and activities for themes and/or time periods in history.

For example, right now they are featuring Great Women of Our Pasts. From the site:

March is Women’s History Month! Have you ever thought about the women who shaped your life today? The sacrifices they’ve made, the obstacles they overcame, or the memorable times in history they lived through? Explore the women in your family or community who have made an impact on who you are today.

There are suggested books such as Seven Brave Women by Betsy Hearne.It tells you about the books and gives you all the information you need to find it along with a reading guide. In fact, you can access a pdf for all the books recommended for this theme. With great information like this and a good children's librarian, you can easily find these books or substitutes.

There are two activities suggested for this theme as well. And pdf files that tell you exactly how to go about them if you need that extra help. The first one is Conduct a Genealogical Study and the second is Make Your Own Quilt Square.




Other themes include:

• Making the Star Spangled Banner
• A Puerto Rican Carnival
• Like in a WWII Japanese-American Internment Camp
• Slave Life and the Underground Railroad
• Pueblo Pots

Definitely a great site to bookmark and return to again and again!

H.S.I.: Historical Scene Investigation

One of my sources for great history links, and other subjects as well, is Clickschooling! This fabulous website came through today as Thursdays are Social Science day at Clickschooling. I wish Blogger would let me do an actual trackback; however, I will settle for a link - be sure to check out Clickschooling if you haven't done so before!

 The Historical Scene Investigation project was designed to help teachers bring primary sources into the classroom. Many primary sources are being uploaded to the internet and are becoming freely available. Studying history with access to primary sources makes for an interactive critical thinking exercise that goes far beyond reading small regurgitated bits of history in a textbook.

The HSI model consists of four steps:

• Becoming a Detective
• Investigating the Evidence
• Searching for Clues
• Cracking the Case

Currently there are 13 cases on file. Each case has a Student View and a Teacher View. The Student View follows the four steps above and includes the primary sources. The Teacher View includes an expanded form of the four steps plus lesson plans and information about standards. Although it is set up for classroom, homeschool teachers can make good use of the information and the sources to take it as far as they want to go with their children.

Historic Clip of WWII Surrender Ceremony

Studying WWII? See history as it happened. The Japanese board the USS Missouri to sign the surrender papers along with the Allied leaders including the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur.

Correction and Apology for Story of US post

A big thank you to reader Lisa for asking a question that led me to discover that I had mistakenly associated the TV series coming to the History Channel called The Story of US with the children's history series by Joy Hakim. I cannot now retrace the steps that led me to make that association. Naturally I broadcast this particular post to a wider audience than usual. I can only be thankful that I didn't submit it to a blog carnival. I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone. The rest of the information contained in that post is accurate.

Here is a site that talks more about the upcoming series and an excerpt:

AMERICA THE STORY OF US, coming in 2010 from acclaimed, Emmy Award winning producer/director Jane Root, is an exuberant, unprecedented look at America - how events, small and large, are intrinsically linked to the taming of the wilderness, leading us from the frontier to 21st Century cities, from the Mississippi to the moon, from Jamestown to 9/11 up to present day. AMERICA THE STORY OF US will move though time and space linking key events, people and locations, capturing the vast sweep of American history.

By way of a Make Up Gift, I did find the section of the PBS website that goes along with their production of Freedom: A History of US, the series that IS based on the books by Joy Hakim. These webisodes are documented with a generous amount of indepth articles and picture links. There are also timelines, glossaries, quizzes and a couple of games. I thought at first you could actually see the videos, but I can't find any links to those. The dvds are available as a set for, ahem, $150 here.

Wow - Free DVD for Story of US!

Homeschoolers are so helpful! This was posted today on a local homeschool list here in Charlotte. I love The Story of US by Joy Hakim. I usually read through it with my children at some point between their 4th and 7th grade years. It is rich and interesting. Because it is secular, there are times - as with any text or book - where I differ on the perspective. However, at home it is simple to have a discussion about this and extremely worth while.
[editing this post to point out that I erroneously associated the following series with Joy Hakim. Please see next post for additional information. There is indeed a series coming out and a free DVD associated with it but the two are not related that I can find. Very Sorry! Off to wipe egg off face before resuming blogging!]

Anyhow, The Story of US premieres on the History Channel on April 25th - my youngest's birthday! AND they are giving away a DVD to every school in America who requests one, including home schools!! Here is the offer from the website:

America The Story of US — premiering on HISTORY™ April 25 at 9pm/8c — is a six week event that provides a fascinating look at the stories of the people, events, and innovations that forged our nation. It will provide you with an unprecedented opportunity to bring our nation's history to life for your students. This 12-hour series will be supported by educational materials tied to curriculum standards and is copyright cleared for Fair Use in the classroom by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities.

* HISTORY is offering America The Story of US on DVD to every school in the United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school, for grades K-12 and college. In order to receive your school's DVD, your school principal (grades K-12) or Dean of Students (college) should fill out the request form below. HISTORY strictly limits one request per school. DVD requests must be made prior to July 1, 2010. DVD's will be mailed around August 2010 and free shipping is included in this offer.

Now, I cannot tell for sure if this is the whole series that they are currently preselling for $29.95 or not. But whether it is the whole thing or an abbreviated version, it is still a great deal. I just registered and it is a one page form that is quickly filled out with no "catch" other than you do have to give complete information.

Animated Atlas

Watch a free 10 minute animated interactive movie of the geographic history of the United States at Animated Atlas. While this is intended to demo a paid product, it is a terrific resource in and of itself. They have a really fast 50 second version on Youtube. It is interesting to give you an idea of the product though it lacks the value of the 10 minute presentation as a standalone. I think the Youtube includes the population layer built into the paid version which is why I am including it. There is also a demo of the CD-ROM version - I might have to put this on my list of resources I want to purchase! I can never have too many visual tools for my youngest child.

Smithsonian's History Explorer

In clicking around on the Smithsonian's History Explorer, I found a flash that contained an interactive handwritten copy of the Gettyburg's Address from a photograph taken 11 days previous to the event. You can hear it read by Liam Neesom, zoom in or out, or view a typewritten transcript.

Under related resources on the same page, you can click to an introduction to Abraham Lincoln entitled "An Extraordinary Life," an interactive timeline page "The American Presidency," or view documents from The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Along the way you are also presented with the opportunity to view museum artifacts such as this Patent Model of Lincoln's. It is easy to get lost in this website because of the rich network of sources presented.

From the home page:

Your gateway to innovative, standards-based online resources for teaching and learning American history, designed and developed by the National Museum of American History as part of Verizon's thinkfinity.org consortium. Explore the rich resources of the Museum and bring history to life with artifacts, primary sources, and online tools for the classroom, afterschool programs, and home.

The front page features a time line for searching that is really cool. It may take some time to learn how to navigate the site efficiently; however, time well spent!

Historical Thinking Matters

Very interesting flash that describes how historians approach original sources as it seeks to whet the appetite about why historical thinking matters. The site describes it:

An introduction to the site's approach using documents to explore conflicting accounts of the 1775 Lexington Green skirmish

The site then presents four investigations that demonstrate how historians seek to resolve issues arising from conflicting source materials. This award winning site would be a terrific resource for students starting on a National History Day project.

The Jamestown Online Adventure

My third grader and I had a lot of fun this morning reinforcing his current history lesson at Time4Learning by playing the Jamestown Online Adventure at History Globe. It allowed us to make some of the same critical decisions that the original colonists had to make and to see how these decisions affect the outcome. We played it several times, playing around with the decisions to see how it affected the outcome. It was a good level for my son with quite a bit of interesting, and, I think, accurate, information without it being too much.

It was serendipitous to come across this site just as we were studying the colonies. I love it when that happens!