America’s Story–Library of Congress for Kids

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. If you want to search through some of them, you can check out my IKeepBookmarks site. Or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

Did you know that the Library of Congress has an entire site just for kids?  It’s called: America’s Story, and it’s wonderful for grades 2-6.  There’s lots of cool, fun facts on it that will interest kids, like: Did you know that the first bathing suits were made of wool?  and Did you know in the original version of Miss Mary Mack – she only had 3 buttons down her back, not 24?  All of the facts connect to great, kid friendly articles about real events from history.

In addition to these “fun” areas, there are places to learn about:

- Amazing Americans – Presidents, Explorers, Inventors, Athletes, Entertainers – many different categories are covered in this section, and for each section, there are links to different people – from Abraham Lincoln to Langston Hughes to Harry Houdini.  For each person, there is a kid-friendly biography, a timeline and links to other articles about that person.

 

- Time Periods in American History – From the colonial times to the cold war – each important era in American History is covered well on this site, with a kid-friendly write up, a timeline and links to other articles on each time period.

 

- US States – Click on a state – any of the 50, and find a great kid-friendly write up, with key facts, a small map, and links to other articles that tie into the important facts about the state. 

 

How can you use this site with your students, or your personal children?