Teaching your child or children from home can be a challenge for any parent/caregiver. We want to help parents and caregivers with social studies resources prepared by the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Below you'll find daily primary source activities for students to engage with as well as a range of resources for all age groups on many topics in the Social Studies and History categories.
- Daily Primary Source Activities
- Documenting Pandemics: Exploring and Creating Historical Materials Activity
- Tennessee Blue Book: A History of Tennessee- Student Edition
- Pre-K thru Elementary Resources
- Middle School Resources
- High School Resources
- Resources for Multiple Grades
- General & Tennessee History for Multiple Grades
The following resources from the Tennessee State Library & Archives and the Tennessee Electronic Library may be useful for families who are undertaking social studies education at home. Please note, all of the resources with a red star ** allow you to translate the resources into one of over 30 languages. For more free resources for at home use, visit the Tennessee Electronic Library's list of online education resources.
Kids InfoBits - Covers a broad range of elementary school topics in one accessible resource. It features a modern, graphical interface offering students an introduction to database searching that is in step with their skill level.
TEL4U.org - Tennessee Electronic Library's website for grades Pre-K‐5 featuring educational and fun websites! Includes the amazing National Geographic Kids website, PBS Kids and so much more. This collection of resources is awesome!
Tennessee Blue Book: A History of Tennessee – Student Edition - features kid-friendly text and primary sources directly from the State Library & Archives. Students can review the discussion questions and take the chapter quizzes to keep their social studies skills sharp! Great for upper elementary, middle and high school or Tennessee history students at any level!
World Book Kids - A general reference website developed especially for young students. The site offers image-based navigation, easy‐to‐read articles, thousands of illustrations, and a wealth of engaging games, science projects, and activities.
TumbleBook Library - TumbleBook Library gives you free access to dozens of children’s books and videos using any web-enabled device. Under the Library section, if you click on non-fiction you’ll have the option to choose from History and Geography books. Tumblebook also has math if you’re interested.
** Indicates translations available in over 30 languages.
Tennessee Blue Book: A History of Tennessee – Student Edition - features kid-friendly text and primary sources directly from the State Library & Archives. Students can review the discussion questions and take the chapter quizzes to keep their social studies skills sharp! Great for upper elementary, middle and high school or Tennessee history students at any level!
TumbleBook Library - TumbleBook Library gives you free access to dozens of children’s books and videos using any web-enabled device. Under the Library section, if you click on non-fiction you’ll have the option to choose from History and Geography books. Tumblebook also has math if you’re interested.
**Middle School Gale in Context - Designed for middle school students, provides access to reference works, biographies, magazine and journal articles, primary source documents, and multimedia. The database will allow you to translate articles into any language.
**U.S. History (Gale Resources) – This collection of journals provides balanced coverage of both current thought on events in U.S. history as well as scholarly work established in the field. Geared toward upper middle school and high school students.
World Book Student - Features more than 40,000 encyclopedia and reference articles, biographies, videos, images, and activities that support middle school research needs.
World Book Timelines - Allows students to discover and map important events in society and culture. Users can browse more than 400 ready-made, interactive timelines covering various periods in history or create their own timeline on any subject.
** Indicates translations available in over 30 languages.
**U.S. History (Gale Resources) – This collection of journals provides balanced coverage of both current thought on events in U.S. history as well as scholarly work established in the field. Geared toward upper middle school and high school students. Great for US American History.
World Book Timelines - Allows students to discover and map important events in society and culture. Users can browse more than 400 ready-made, interactive timelines covering various periods in history or create their own timeline on any subject.
World Book Advanced - Online encyclopedia, perfect for high school students, that features thousands of reference articles, primary sources, and online books. It also includes up-to-the-minute access to worldwide news publications, government links from numerous countries, and multimedia materials.
**U.S. History (Gale Resources) – This collection of journals provides balanced coverage of both current thought on events in U.S. history as well as scholarly work established in the field. Geared toward upper middle school and high school students.
** Indicates translations available in over 30 languages.
Resources for Multiple Grade Levels
World Book Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos - Spanish language interface for World Book Encyclopedia featuring thousands of easy-to read articles packed with stunning illustrations, videos, interactive maps, and engaging games and activities.
Tennessee Blue Book: A History of Tennessee – Student Edition - features kid-friendly text and primary sources directly from the State Library & Archives. Students can review the discussion questions and take the chapter quizzes to keep their social studies skills sharp! Great for upper elementary, middle and high school or Tennessee history students at any level!
**Books and Authors (Gale Resources) - Explores today’s popular fiction and non-fiction as well as the classics of yesterday. See the many titles listed under Non-Fiction (Social Studies). Please note, you may wish limit your search results to “Children”, “Young Adult”, and “Adults” depending the age group you are working with.
Heritage Quest Online - Collection of genealogical and historical sources, with coverage dating back to the 1700s. This resource searches U.S. census records, full-text family and local history books, Freedman's Bank records and more. Focused on genealogy, could be a fun project for parents/students to explore their family history while at home.
**High School Gale In Context- Covers a broad range of topics, people, places, and events in an engaging online experience to help high school students with papers, projects, and presentations.
ProQuest: The Tennessean (1812-2002) - Digitized pages of The Tennessean (1812-2002) provide unique historical insight into the regional issues and concerns, such as local government, industrialization, prohibition, and racial struggles.
The Tennessean (2002-Present) - Full-text articles from The Tennessean newspaper, providing Nashville and Middle Tennessee regional coverage.
**U.S. History (Gale Resources) – This collection of journals provides balanced coverage of both current thought on events in U.S. history as well as scholarly work established in the field. Geared toward upper middle school and high school students.
World Book eBooks – Includes highly illustrated, engaging titles that support a span of curriculum areas and reading levels. Full scans of the books, all subjects.
World Book Timelines - Allows students to discover and map important events in society and culture. Users can browse more than 400 ready-made, interactive timelines covering various periods in history or create their own timeline on any subject.
World History - Scholarly journals and magazines useful to both novice historians as well as advanced academic researchers offering balanced coverage of events in world history.
** Indicates translations available in over 30 languages.
General History Resources focused on Primary Sources & Tennessee History- Multiple Grade Levels
Chronicling America - Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present including 125 newspapers from Tennessee. Good for Middle & High School Students.
Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture - Free, comprehensive reference work featuring over 1,500 entries on the Volunteer State. Cosponsored by the University of Tennessee Press and the Tennessee Historical Society. Good for Middle & High School Students.
Tennessee State Symbols – Did you know that in 2009, milk was designated as the official state beverage of Tennessee? Explore the list of Tennessee State symbols, State holidays, State songs, and flag status.
Tennessee Library for Accessible Books and Media (LABM) – A free library program of over 150,000 recorded, large print and braille materials available to residents of Tennessee who are not able to use standard materials due to visual or physical disability. Check out their “Virtual Story Time” and all large print and braille materials.
** Indicates translations available in over 30 languages.