Social Studies

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind these resources are free but all users should read all terms of use before subscribing to these or any resources. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether the resources are Ed Law 2D compliant.

Pk-2

3-5

6-8

9-12

SS Workshops

Digital Classroom Resources to help Embed Technology and Computer Science:

Common Sense Education

K-12

Grade-level specific lesson plans and quick activities centered around digital citizenship and online safety. This site also contains reviews of various forms of media, including movies and apps that may be used in the classroom.

Common Sense Device Advice

K-5

A collection of materials great for the start of the year when teachers are introducing or reintroducing responsible tech care.

Common Sense Digital Wellbeing

6-8

Support students' digital well-being with this set of evidence-based lessons. Each is designed to help them build agency, reduce anxious thoughts, and increase mindfulness related to their tech habits.

PixilArt

2-12

Pixilart is an online drawing application and community of art enthusiasts. Pixilart is a safe website for users of all ages, where users can easily create art for games, entertainment, and education. Note: This website seems to have many ads on the drawing page unless you pay $4.99/month for the pro plan. No account required.

PiskelApp

2-12

Piskel is a free online editor for animated sprites & pixel art. Similar to PixilArt, but has a slightly simplified toolbox and can be used to create multi-frame animated GIFs. No ads. No account required.

Chrome Music Lab

K-12

A series of fun and colorful tools for students to play and create music. These tools range from very simple, like Rhythm and Kandinsky, to more complicated, such as Song Maker.

Doodle3D

PK-5

Doodle3D Transform is a free and open-source web-app that makes designing in 3D easy and fun! Students draw their basic shapes in 2D on the left side of the screen and watch it become a 3D model on the right. They can make further changes to the 3D shape on the right side. Once complete, these files can be exported for use in a 3D printer.

TinkerCAD

6-12

Tinkercad is a free web app for 3D design, electronics, and coding. Students can build their own models or use pre-loaded figures to create digital dioramas.

CSEdWeek CS Heros

K-12

A series of activities centered around diverse perspectives and roles in Computer Science. There are inspirational posters/videos included, and the individuals selected are updated each year.

CS Fundamentals Unplugged

K-5

A collection of unplugged activities that appear in the CS Fundamentals courses

Interland

2-7

Interland: Be Internet Legends empowers younger children to use the web safely and wisely, so they can be confident explorers of the online world.

Typing.com

Typing.com offers a comprehensive curriculum to strengthen student’s typing abilities with a customizable experience for both educators and students.

Typingclub.com

It is web based and highly effective. TypingClub is (and will always be) free for both individuals and schools. There is an optional paid school edition.

Dance Mat Typing

Build and test primary Computing skills with different levels of touch type challenges. Learn and practice typing letters in rows, typing keys on the home row and typing capital letters, apostrophes, slashes and full stops.

Everfi

K-12

EVERFI helps teachers and schools bring real-world skills to students. Their digital platform offers self-paced online lessons with built-in assessments that are free for schools. Their digital platform offers interactive, game-based lessons to engage students at all ages.

CS First

4-8

CS First is an easy-to-use computer science curriculum designed for students in grades 4-8 (ages 9-14) that is free of charge. Teachers use the video content to teach kids coding basics with Scratch for CS First, a special version of the Scratch coding editor inside the CS First website.

CSEdWeek Future Me

K-12

Students will imagine how they can use computer science and leverage their passions in their future careers. They will create posters illustrating their future selves to describe the positive impacts their work will have on others. Students will be able to plan poster content, design posters, and share their posters with others.

Join NCHE today and become an automatic member of NY Council!

National Council for History Education

Please note: We receive membership updates from the national office four times a year. In the interim, don't miss NYCHE updates and programming notices. Please email NYCHE State Coordinator Jordan Maul at archedu@nysed.gov after you complete your NCHE registration and we will add you to our State Council membership list.

Featured

Facing History and OurselvesEmpowering teachers & students to think critically about history & to understand the impact of their choices.

Why Students Should Write in All SubjectsWriting improves learning by consolidating information in long-term memory, researchers explain. Plus, five engaging writing activities to use in all subjects.

Getting Started With PBL in Social StudiesImplementing project-based learning can lead students to investigate historical movements.

The New York State Museum’s program

The New York State Museum’s program, “The Lives of Enslaved People through the Objects They Left Behind,” is now available online with additional resources for educators. Join Dr. Michael Lucas as he explores how artifacts excavated at the 18th-century John Bogart House site in Albany provide insight into enslaved individuals and how they claimed some power and control over their own lives through the manipulation of material objects. Educators can earn 2 hours of CTLE credit by watching the webinar and completing the survey available with the recorded program.

Please contact the Office of Curriculum and Instruction at 518-474-5922 or standards@nysed.gov with any questions.

Exploring Social Justice Issues Through PBLThe open-ended work in project-based learning can help students explore issues that matter to them.

How to Engage Students in Historical Thinking Using Everyday ObjectsAsking students to examine their own possessions from the perspective of a historian in the future helps them sharpens their analytical skills.

American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB)! Check out our new Library Toolkit!

AAPB_Library_Toolkit.pdf

Since 2015, the AAPB has digitized and preserved more than 120,000 historic public television and radio programs from over 140 stations across the country, with more than half of the collection available online at https://americanarchive.org.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Teach Diverse Stories with Primary Sources and Artifacts. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.Incorporating a range of primary sources makes history inclusive and meaningful for students. Join us for a conversation about using primary sources and artifacts in the history classroom to help all students develop historical thinking skills and build content knowledge. Learn how you can diversify and enrich your curriculum with digital learning resources on PBS LearningMedia, and get ideas on how you can make primary sources accessible to all learners Webinar Objectives: Explore ways to engage, excite, and involve students in the work that historians do through the exploration of primary sources and artifacts Highlight diverse stories through primary sources that illuminate the lives of ordinary people to develop students’ historical empathy Learn about the wide range of primary sources and artifact images available on PBS LearningMedia Please Note: We encourage everyone to register even if they are unable to attend. All registrants will receive a follow up email with a link to the recording and resources mentioned in the webinar.

And She Could Be Next | PBS LearningMediaAnd She Could Be Next tells the story of a defiant movement of women of color transforming American politics from the ground up. Filmed during the historic 2018 midterm elections, the series follows organizers and candidates as they fight for a truly reflective government.

How to Broaden Students’ Sense of HistoryBy incorporating diverse voices not found in some textbooks, teachers can provide a fuller, more accurate picture of historical events.

Teaching Matters

@SCHOOL ANYTIME Interactive Student Projects

3-10 day student projects for teachers to customize while students learn remotely.

Customize based on ELL, IEP, Standards, Grade Level and Subject

Learning from Home - Teaching Matters

Young Voices for the Planet

The mission of Young Voices for the Planet (YVFP) is to limit and mitigate the magnitude and impacts of climate change by empowering youth, through uplifting and inspiring success stories, to take an essential role in informing themselves, their peers and their communities—becoming leaders and changing laws, changing minds and changing the world.

Our award-winning documentary films feature diverse young role models on the front lines of climate change, reducing the carbon footprint of their homes, schools and communities—while saving money and improving health. California kids ban plastic bags; Florida students save their school $53,000 in energy costs; an 11-year-old German boy plants millions of trees; and a 10-year-old Connecticut girl’s dynamic speeches help shut down a coal-fired power plant. These films along with our Civic Engagement and Democracy Curriculum and professional development for educators, give young people hope and the tools to take action and make a difference—even though they’re still too young to vote!

Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching | PBS EducationYour source for teaching inspiration, blogs, and online professional events.

The March on Washington | John Lewis: Get in the Way | PBS LearningMediaA coalition of six African American organizations came together in 1963 to organize the historic March on Washington. Their goal was to press the congress to pass a civil rights bill introduced by President Kennedy’s administration. John Lewis chaired one of these organizations, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and was chosen to be the youngest speaker at the march. In the initial draft of his speech, he criticized the president’s bill as weak and too cautious. His elders, eager to preserve the success of the march, pressured Lewis to compromise and tone down his speech.

OER HISTORY PROJECT

HomeOER - A free, online course that meets high school World History standards, OER uses diverse narratives to engage high school students in problem solving and connection making, preparing them to tackle advanced studies and big questions in the future.

The War | Ken Burns in the Classroom | PBS LearningMediaThis seven-part, 14-hour documentary film series tells the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four quintessentially American towns. The series explores the most intimate human dimensions of the greatest cataclysm in history—a worldwide catastrophe that touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America—and demonstrates that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.

National Council For Social Studies (NCSS)

During this incredibly challenging time, National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) wants to ensure that all educators have the support and high-quality resources they need to teach about racism, racial injustice, and human rights with students at every grade level. This instruction is not about “teaching current events”, or an add-on to the school day, but a foundation of social education – exploring the systemic persistence of racism and injustice across our nation and world.

Resources for Teaching About Racism, Racial Injustice, and Human RightsThe following articles have been selected from our three main journals for K-12 teachers: Social Education, Middle Level Learning, and Social Studies and the Young Learner. These articles are grouped by topic for easy reference. Also included are recent current event responses that address racism and call for human rights education.

18 Children’s Books to Prompt and Further Conversations on Race | PBS EducationYour source for teaching inspiration, blogs, and online professional events.

Confronting Anti-Black Racism | PBS LearningMediaUse these materials with middle and high school students to help them understand the long history of anti-Black racism in the United States, and think about ways to address it in their own families and communities. Resources include news coverage of recent protests, videos on the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement and protests against police brutality within the past decade, iconic PBS documentaries on the histories of race and racism in America, and activities addressing civic engagement and elevating students’ voices. Student Reporting Labs wants to hear from teens in this moment. Students are invited to record rapid responses (see instructions) and submit videos for possible inclusion in a PBS NewsHour Race Matters special report.

A Guide to Equity and Antiracism for EducatorsTeachers shaken by recent events and wondering how to work for change in our society and schools can start with these lesson plans, videos, and other resources.

Classroom ResourcesFrom film kits and lesson plans to the building blocks of a customized Learning Plan—texts, student tasks and teaching strategies—our resources will help you bring relevance, rigor and social emotional learning into your classroom—all for FREE.

A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching the Colonization of the AmericasPreparing for the emotions that may arise from discussions of genocide and oppression can help teachers avoid traumatizing students.

Teaching Black History in Culturally Responsive WaysBlack history is American history and should be taught throughout the year across the curriculum—not confined to a single month.

A Look at Implicit Bias and MicroaggressionsA primer on the impact of implicit biases in schools and how they can be expressed by students and faculty.

Talking About Racism and Violence: Resources for Educators and Families

Prioritizing Empathy and Anti-Racism in Schools | PBS EducationYour source for teaching inspiration, blogs, and online professional events.

PNW BOCES

We wanted to share out some additional resources and website updates to support online/virtual teaching and learning.

Recorded webinars are now available for Mini Units K-2 and 3-5. The sessions for grade levels K-5 are accessible under the “Online Learning” tab on the Integrated SS/ELA Curriculum Homepage.

The SS/ELA Team has put together a recorded webinar and presentation on using technology to create engaging games and activities to augment the SS/ELA Curriculum. They are available under the "Online Learning" tab on the Integrated SS/ELA CurriculumHomepage.

Additionally, each Unit K-8 now has an introduction video which discusses the Key Idea(s) and Essential Question(s) that the Unit and its Lessons are built around.

From our PNW BOCES community we have the following resources to share:

Jill Rogovic, PNW BOCES Elementary Collegial Circle Leader, has curated a great list of online elementary-friendly resources here.

PNW BOCES continues to offer free virtual PLontheGO on a daily basis: information here.

I wish you all continued health and wellness. Please reach out if we can support you at all during these challenging times.

Harvard Project Zero at Home

The "At Home with PZ" toolbox features an easy-to-use search function to help you find the activities that fit your and your learners’ needs. Simply use the filters (as many or as few as you’d like) to indicate the learner age range and the time commitment that match your context. Alternatively, you can skim the list to get a quick overview the activities and learner age ranges. Clicking on the activity link takes you to a downloadable PDF that describes the activity in more detail, including suggestions for use and tips for getting started.