Learning About Your World: Selected Resources

Learn about the history, daily life and culture of the country you have selected as your research subject by visiting the links below. Then, use your own creativity to design and craft your mask! Are you unable to find the information you need after checking the resources included in this list? Please stop by the IMC, or send an email message (joanneokeefe@salem.k12.ma.us), to ask Mrs. O'Keefe for help.

CultureGrams
(Begin your research by using this terrific database!)
This comprehensive collection features information about the history, culture, and daily life of 187 countries and territories, including detailed statistics, maps, and much more. (Stop by the IMC to obtain the Username and Password you'll need to use this collection.)

SIRS Discoverer and Web Find
This collection includes newspaper and magazine articles, reference books, pictures, and recommended web sites. Just click on the "Countries" button to find an A to Z list of the world's countries, and click on the one you'd like to learn about. (Stop by the IMC to obtain the Login ID and Password you'll need to use this collection.)

Student Resource Center
This outstanding collection of full-text encyclopedia articles provides a wealth of information about each country, including: climate, geography, a detailed history, government, judicial system, cultural resources, people, politics, social development, and much, much more. Enter your country into the search field, and view your search results. Select any of the encyclopedia entries described as a "country overview" to locate a detailed article about your selected country. (Stop by the IMC to obtain the ID you'll need to use this collection.)

TradePort: Country Profiles from World Trade Press
Just click on a selected country for detailed statistical information.

The World Factbook
This helpful resource offers a detailed entry for each country. "Select a Country or Location" to learn about its background/history, economy, geography, government, people, find a map, and more. Other features include Rank/Order pages and Flags of the World.

Portals to the World: Links to Electronic Resources from Around the World
Visit this site for links to detailed information about nations and territories throughout the world, selected by Library of Congress Area Specialists and other staff members.

Infoplease.com
Enter your country into the search field, and search Infoplease's general almanac, encyclopedia and dictionary simultaneously. This resource includes a map of each country, and a wealth of useful information about its economy, government, history, land, people, and more. Or, go directly to Infoplease's list of "Countries of the World"

BBC News: Country Profiles
This site offers information about the history, politics, and economics of countries, territories and international organizations.

CountryReports.org: Cultural, Historical, & Statistical Country Information!
Visit this site to learn about the history, politics, customs and culture (including family life, socializing, sports & recreation, recipes and fashion) of the country you have chosen as your research subject. This site also features a nice photo gallery.

National Geographic Xpeditions Atlas
Visit this site for maps that you can print and copy.

List of Countries: from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Find your country in this comprehensive list, for information about its history, geography, languages, culture, and religions, as well as maps, images of landforms, and much more, including links to other information sources.

WorldAtlas.com
Find detailed maps, including landforms and major rivers, and information about your selected country at this site.

WorldClimate.com
Visit this site to find average rainfall, average temperature, and other information, for cities around the world.

PicturesOfPlaces.com

Pics4Learning: Countries

Europe Maps and Pictures
This EurAtlas collection includes a Physical Atlas of Europe and Europe Photos, a collection of more than 500 high resolution pictures of Europe and Mediterranean
landscapes.

SHOW ME (AND TEACH ME ABOUT) THE MONEY!: CURRENCIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Find images of banknotes from countries around the world, or convert various currencies to U.S. dollars and vice versa, by visiting the links below.

Banknotes.com: World Currency Gallery

Travel Channel Resources: Currency Converter

The Euro: Our Currency

World Paper Money: Image Gallery

Yahoo! Finance: Currency Converter

Looking at Art: Selected Museum Sites

"Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life."-- Pablo Picasso

Looking for inspiration? Visit the art museum sites below, selected by Collins art teachers Ms. Flynn, Ms. Politis, and Ms. Telles.

Art Access
This site, created by the Art Institute of Chicago and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, features examples of art and objects from several areas of the Institute's permanent collections, including: African American Art; American Art to 1900; Ancient Indian Art of the Americas; Art of Africa; Impressionism and Post-Impressionism; India, Himalayas & Southeast Asia; Modern and Contemporary Art; Renaissance & Baroque Art; and Rococo to Realism.

Art Interactive: Learn About Sculpture (from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian's museum of international modern and contemporary art)
This site features a fun interactive sculpture site.

Art Safari: An Adventure in Looking, for Children and Adults, by Joyce Raimondo, for the Museum of Modern Art
This interactive resource challenges children to analyze artwork through a series of questions.

Art Zone (from NGAkids)
This fun National Gallery of Art site features interactive art activities for students.

Children's Museum of Manhattan

For Kids: the Getty Museum and Whyville (from the J. Paul Getty Museum)
Learn about the Getty Museum's art treasures while exploring the games at this site.

Inside Art: An Adventure in Art History (from Educational Web Adventures)
This interactive art history site is designed for younger students.

Matisse for Kids (from the Baltimore Museum of Art)
Join Raoudi, Henri Matisse's schnauzer, for an online adventure, and along the way learn about this master's bold and wonderful artwork.

MOCHA: Museum of Children's Art (located in Oakland, California)

Museum of Fine Arts
Visit this site to search from among more than 325,000 works of "art from around the world and across the ages", available for viewing and copying.

Museum of Web Art: Kids
Check out this site for games, puzzles, and The LIZZYs - "the web's first animated musical" (created by Susan Finley, music by Tom Beyer, web design by Susan Finley & Barbara Genova).

MuseumKids
Kids, parents and teachers will enjoy this rich site, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which features interactive explorations, tours, games, puzzles and mysteries, as well as a terrific Timeline of Art History (searchable by time period or topic).

Peabody Essex Museum
This site features ARTscape, through which students can search for subjects that interest them among the PEM's many works of art, architecture, and culture, and create their own art "collections".

Sculpture
This resource, designed for younger children by the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, introduces different types of sculpture.

SmartKids (from the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago)
Look at examples of artwork and learn about their history, learn about the vocabulary of art (just what DOES a curator do, exactly?), visit an artist's studio, create your own art, keep an online journal, and much more, at this terrific interactive site.

Smithsonian: Fun On-Line Stuff for Kids
This site features games, puzzles, trivia quizzes, and much more, as well as information for kids about how to begin their own collections of art or other interesting things. (Links to any plug-ins needed to run any of the games are available from this site.)

UC Berkeley Art Museum Online Guide
This terrific site, a nice overview for students who may soon be visiting an art museum, helps to teach them how to look at a piece of art by asking them a series of questions about selected paintings. It also features a helpful list of vocabulary terms, as well as an explanation of "How to Read a Museum Label".