Archives: Resources

The California County Superintendents Arts Initiative focuses on theater,dance, music and visual arts.

If you are a fan of PBS’ Great Performances, look at their web site for links and background. Excerpts can be heard, too.

Here’s an introduction to opera for young children — the story of Little Red Riding Hood in 10 minutes. Check with your lour local opera company for programs … learn more

The Educational Theater Association introduces both teachers and students to theater programs on the Web. It is aimed primarily at the secondary level. A monthly magazine and links … learn more

You may not be in the same room right now, but your students can still perform together. Here’s an example of a dance number from High School Musical … learn more

H. Jon Benjamin and Jesse Benjamin created this animated adaptation of the famed McSweeney’s Internet Tendency piece, In Which I Fix My Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ WiFi and Am Hailed … learn more

This group from Copenhagen, Denmark shows what you can do with a few recycled items. Turn your students loose and see what sort of instruments they can come … learn more

If movies were written by our children… “Kid Snippets” is a weekly comedy series, in which adults act out stories written and narrated by children. In this episode, … learn more

StoryCorps’ mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a better world. At the same time, they are creating … learn more

StoryCenter creates spaces for transforming lives and communities, through the acts of listening to and sharing stories. Since 1993, they have partnered with organizations around the world on … learn more

MERLOT is a curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.

PBS’ 4 part series about the roots of American music contains links for a deeper explore of this subject. It contains some rare resources from the Library of … learn more

The Children’s Music Web showcases material, created by and for children. It includes everything from “Pickleberry Pie” to “Rug Bugs”.

This resource from the National Association for Music Education contains current information, news, tips, lessons, and networking opportunities you need as a music educator.

MakeMusic (with a special price for schools) helps teachers create lessons for vocal or instrumental ensembles and tools for site reading and singing. Useful for teaching instrumental or … learn more

Using a newspaper picture of birds sitting on telephone wires, Jarbas Agnelli was inspired to try making a song out of it. The results speak for themselves. Have … learn more

The site offers artistic, biographical, and contact information, along with upcoming performances of composers, conductors, performers, and ensembles. The directory also contains information on professional organizations and educators … learn more

Appropriate for older students, Audiotool is a free yet powerful online music production studio right you can access with a browser. It provides virtual versions of pro audio … learn more

Virtual Drums lets you play a wide variety of virtual drum sets right from your web browser. Virtual Drumming includes free drumming lessons, games, drum sheet music and … learn more

The Piano Education Page is a one-stop resource for teachers, students, parents of students, and fans of the piano with over 1000 pages of family-friendly information, upgraded regularly. … learn more

KMel Robotics created a team of flying hexrotor copters that create music in ways never seen before. Worth viewing “full screen”.

Pan flutes are easy to make, takes only minutes, and cheap – drinking straws and some tape. Figuring out how to hold your lips just right to get … learn more

Children’s Songs is another site providing both lyrics and playable MIDI music files. The actual number of songs which can be played via the computer is extensive. For … learn more

Physics and music have been related for millennia. The art and science of music acoustics are presented here, in musician-friendly format.

Fundamentals of matter and force. Particle Adventure demonstrates the connections between music and physics.

Jazz at PBS was created to accompany Ken Burns’ 10 part history of jazz. In addition to rich biographies with artists playing, site visitors can visit the Jazz … learn more

The Jazz Hall of Fame is jam-packed with Big Band and Jazz history, music samples, headlines etc. It is very comprehensive.

Our Education programs empower all listeners and creators to make their own connections to orchestral music. From games that introduce preschoolers to musical basics to activities that inspire … learn more

What happens when Mozart and James Bond collide? In addition to being great fun, Igudesman & Joo show how combining two styles or eras of music can lead … learn more

PRS plays classical music (post copyright). You can research composers, download MIDI files, and find instructional tips.

The Science of Music within the Exploratorium site answers questions like how opera singers can hold their breath so long and what music kitchen objects can generate. Graphically … learn more

How many times does the chorus repeat in your favorite song? Repetition in music isn’t just a feature of Western pop songs; it’s a global phenomenon. Why? Elizabeth … learn more

Music Theory, started by Ricci Adams while a HS Senior, has over twenty-five lessons and several on-line trainers and utilities. The site, more appropriate for older students, includes … learn more

Rhythmweb hosts sound files, among other resources in percussion, from around the world.

… by a 12 year old. A lighthearted, if not so helpful guide created by an unqualified individual. Enjoy! The video was assembled by Julian Cianciolo, who also … learn more

Wynita Harmon, elementary art teacher in Plano, TX, shows how your students can make nature-inspired art. Students can find natural items and create art with them or sketch … learn more

“Art takes nature as its model.” – Aristotle Jean Van’t Hul has assembled lots (and lots!) of interesting nature art activities for kids. Everything from drawing leaves to … learn more

Marghanita Hughes perspective on how nature and art can foster a deep love for the natural world. Nature art can be infused beautifully into all other subjects in … learn more

Draw3D is a simple site but fun, and includes on-line drawing lessons. Created by Mark Kistler, Public Television’s favorite drawing teacher.

There are a lot of online resources available where you can change, enhance and make funny photo editing without knowing and program like Photoshop. Here is a collection … learn more

Silk is hard to describe. It’s called an on-line interactive generative artwork. The easiest way to explain it is to just go to the site and start drawing … learn more

Similar to Tim’s Vermeer’s trick, this simple to make project can help your students, allowing them to easily draw something from their phone screen. The materials are usually … learn more

This tutorial from Jk Alombro shows you the steps to turn a photograph into an anime character. While using Photoshop, you should be able to replicate this method … learn more

Using only some toilet paper rolls and some non-toxic paint, you can make awesome creatures for Halloween decorations. Chances are you already have the materials you need in … learn more

Here’s an example of combining art and photography into something special. Variations on this project include using your school mascot, images cut out of magazines, or photographs of … learn more

The move Tim’s Vermeer shows how Tim Jenison duplicated Vermeer’s painting style using a mirror to monitor parts of the picture. By placing a small, fixed mirror above … learn more

Your students can create paper wallets from a normal piece of paper, with minimal cutting and one piece of tape. It creates a durable, seamless, useable, write-onable, minimalist … learn more

American Art at the Smithsonian offers am impressive collection of teacher guides, resources and videos. The guides are identified with corresponding standards and grade levels, and most are … learn more

A glimpse into the world of Impressionistic painters combines art history and composition in painting.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC illustrates major achievements in painting, sculpture, decorative arts and works on paper from the Middle Ages to the present. Learn … learn more

A team of students from Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center developed this First Person Puzzle game built around Forced Perspective. This is a demo of the technology … learn more

Inside Art complements Pintura — only at this site students actually find themselves inside a painting and solve a mystery to exit.

Pintura is designed as a mystery site at which students learn techniques, such as brushstrokes, by comparing an old painting-artist unknown-discovered in an attic with masterworks to determine … learn more

In this video from MAKE: television, Reuben Margolin, a Bay Area visionary and longtime maker, creates totally singular techno-kinetic wave sculptures. Using everything from wood to cardboard to … learn more

The Getty Museum turns traditional art education upside down. Rather than introducing themes and ideas through art history and then applying those concepts to art-making activities, the curriculum … learn more

The World’s Smallest Political Quiz (10 questions) lets students deduce their inclinations and, more importantly, let them start to understand what the labels – Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, Statist … learn more

For raw data and learning about polling questions and procedures, check out Polling Report.

Ballotpedia is a non-partisan, online encyclopedia of American politics. They provide objective information about politics, influencers, and present & past elections. The cover not only national politics, but … learn more

The National Endowment for the Humanities has assembled 426 different lesson plans covering everything from A Raisin in the Sun and Common Sense to Angkor Wat and What … learn more

Since 1975, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has produced independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process. Each year, this nonpartisan agency produces dozens … learn more

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) hosts and provides public access to one of the most significant archives for environmental data on Earth. Through the Center for … learn more

The Federal Election Commission not only provides help for political candidates and committees, but tracks campaign contributions and expenditures and publishes that information here. Historical data is available, … learn more

Data.gov is the home of the U.S. Government’s open data. Here you and your students will find the data, tools, and resources to conduct research, design data visualizations, … learn more

USA.gov is the federal government’s online guide to government information and services. Pick the topic and you can get information on it here. USA.gov provides a portal to … learn more

Because computers can track and remember different points of view and alternative decisions so much more easily than people, we find this feature more frequently on the Web … learn more

The Chicago History Museum hosts an extensive collection of classroom resources covering curriculum for grades 1 through 12. The site includes both online and downloadable activities. Lesson plans … learn more

A list of the over 200 on-line collections maintained by the Library of Congress. You and your students can view maps & photographs; read letters, diaries & newspapers; … learn more

New content is added regularly to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website, including online exhibitions, videos, lesson plans, and issues of the online journal History Now, … learn more

Lyrical Legacy helps teachers explore eighteen American songs and poems from the digital collections of the Library of Congress. Each song and poem is represented by an original … learn more

Historical Thinking Matters is a collaboration between the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and Stanford University’s History Education group. The resources can be … learn more

The Digital History Reader is a content- and inquiry-based for teaching European and American history with illustrative, multi-media downloads.

This website connects Annenberg’s award-winning, comprehensive curriculum on the Constitution and its amendments to daily civics news and student discussion. Their nonpartisan writers sift through national and local … learn more

Main Menus British History American History Germany History Russian History French History First World War Second World War Spanish Civil War Cold War Vietnam War Assassination of John … learn more

Our Documents is a collaboration among many archive agencies to provide wider access to key U.S. History expressions of turning points. Often, texts include excerpts of these primary … learn more

Famous Trials looks at everything from the trial of Socrates (399 B.C.) to Susan B. Anthony (1873) to the Nuremberg Trials (1945-49)and the recent Zimmerman (“Trayvon Shooting”) Trial … learn more

The official site for the U.S. Supreme Court includes slip opinions that are released on the day that a case is decided, volumes of all of the Court’s … learn more

NARA, the U.S. National Archives and Record Administration,now called just Archives, has just begun to display its holdings, almost all of which cannot be found elsewhere. For starters … learn more

Calisphere is the University of California’s free public gateway to a world of primary sources. More than 200,000 digitized items — including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, … learn more

Includes photos and art, literature and historical documents about the Great Depression.

Offers representative photos for students to replicate the work of historians by sifting and comparing photos for the history of the U.S. between 1880 and 1920. EDC has … learn more

Both the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information and Dorthea Lange document American life during the Great Depression. The photographers used black and white so their work is … learn more

Geography and maps are a fundamental language for understanding the world. They provide a framework for organizing and communicating our knowledge. Increasingly geography is used in virtually every … learn more

The goal of Confluence is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures, … learn more

With the advent of the smart phone, just about everyone now has access to a high quality GPS receiver. There are a wide variety of GPS apps available … learn more

This site has digitized one of the greatest historical atlases, Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright’s Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, first published … learn more

This is the link to the GeoCaching site. You can do something similar in your own school or neighborhood by creating caches and providing directions. A great way … learn more

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, … learn more

GPS uses trilateration, not triangulation, to figure out where you are. The actual math is complex, but this video shows how GPS uses three satellites to sort out … learn more

The CIA World Factbook includes maps of each country in the world as well as high resolution regional and global reference maps. Then entry for each country includes … learn more

When looking for interesting geography facts, World Geography For Kids found some really fun continent facts and interesting facts about the world’s countries and people. See how many … learn more

This Discovery News segment from 2013 describes the GPS network, where it came from, how it works, and how it it being upgraded with a new generation of … learn more

National Geographic’s Interactive Map Maker includes topo, satellite, terrain, and ocean maps. You can layer on data values and save the results.

The entire history of the World from the rise of civilization to the present day. There are a number of takeaways from this compelling video… . While humans … learn more

Telling Their Stories describes the construction of an oral history. This method can be especially interesting for students learning from the elderly about their families, because some older … learn more

For a view of the future in past predictions look at Davids Zondy site and thenn change your own forecasts.

Travel back to the 1800s and become an eyewitness to history. You become a young slave who must make some important and life-changing decisions. These lesson plans and … learn more

The National Historical Society recommends HistoryNet as a more traditional source than the WallofHonor.

For Jewish American history look at this American Jewish Archives page, mapping the entire span of years during which Jews have lived in North America.