Resources for the Sample Topic:

Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno’s USA. New York: The Putnam & Grosset Group. 1998. ISBN 0-698-11678-X. In wordless panoramas a lone traveler approaches the New World from the West in the present day and journeys the width of the country backwards through time, departing the east coast as the Santa Maria appears over the horizon.

Burton, Virginia Lee. The Little House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. ISBN 0- 590-41383-X. A little house built in the country experiences many changes as the city grows up around it.

Draze, Dianne. Our Town. Illustrations by Dean and Pat Crawford. San Luis Obispo, Calif.: Dandy Lion Publications, 1988. ISBN 0-931724-48-1. A guide for studying any community.

Dragonwagon, Crescent. Home Place. Illustrations by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Aladdin Books. 1990. ISBN 0-689-71758-X. While hiking, a family comes upon the site of an old house and finds some clues about the people that once lived there.

Collier, John. The Backyard. New York: Viking. 1993. A child imagines what has taken place in the backyard, from the present all the way back to the creation of the world.

Friedman, Nancy. Art of the State- California. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 1998. ISBN 0-8109-5552-0 California: the spirit of America as seen through California’s beautiful historical art work, 187 illustrations in all.

Gunby, Lise. Early Farm Life. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. 1992. ISBN 0-86505-026-0 This resource provides wonderful photos, drawings, and background information about early farm life from the wilderness and barnyards to the wheat fields prairies to ranching.

Hollenbeck, Kathleen M. Exploring Our World: Neighborhoods and Communities. Jefferson City, Missouri: Scholastic Professional Books. 1997. ISBN 590-89809- 4. A collection of hands-on activities that introduce students to their neighborhood and local community through literature, observation, and games.

Humphrey, Paul. In Grandma’s Day. Illustrated by Katy Sleight. Austin, Texas: Steck-Vaughn Company. 1995. ISBN 0-81143717-5. In Grandma’s day, life was very different. A grandmother remembers with her grandchildren what kids played with, how they dressed, what transportation was like, and other common happenings of the 1930’s and 40’s. Picture Book

Johnson, Paul. Pictorial History of California. USA: Bonanza Books. 1970. A superb, richly compiled resources book of primary sources of California as presented through the hundreds of images and historical text of three conflicting cultures: America Indian, Spanish-Mexican and Yankee.

Jungreis, Abigail. Know Your Hometown History. New York: Franklin Watts. 1992. ISBN 0-531-11124-5. Informative book which includes research activities, mapping skills and projects to do for your local community.

Lattimore, Deborah Nourse. Frida Maria . New York: Harcourt Brace Company. 1994. ISBN 0-15-201515-9. Frida is a young girl living with her family in the Old Southwest during the days of Ranchos and Rodeos and Fiestas. However, because she does not sewn, cook, or dance like “proper señorita”, Frida cannot please her mother until she saves the day at the fiesta with her special talent.

Los Angeles Times Newspaper, March 7, 1997, Community Profile: Bell written by Cecilia Rasmussen.

Lyon, George. Who Came Down That Road? Paintings by Peter Catalanotto
New York: Orchard Books. 1992. ISBN 0-531-07073-5. A mother and child ponder thee past in discussing who might have traveled down an old, old road, looking backwards from pioneer settlers all the way to prehistoric animals. Excellent picture books to show community changes.

MacGill-Callahan, Sheila. And Still the Turtle Watched. Pictures by Barry Moser.
New York: Puffin Pied Piper Publications. 1991. ISBN 0-14-055836-5. Poignant tale depicts community change over time with emphasis on environmental pollution and recovery. A great book for community beautification and renewal, giving reason for students to honor and respect their city’s past.

National Archives- Pacific Southwest Region. 24000 Avila Road. P.O. Box 6719 Laguna Niguel, CA 92677-6719 Phone: 714-643-4241. Provides specific information for primary sources.

Pryor, Bonnie. House on Maple Street. Illustrations by Beth Peck. New York: Mulberry Books. 1987. ISBN 0-688-122031-8. A wonderfully illustrated book that shows the course of three hundred years, many people have passed by or lived on the spot now occupied by a house numbered 107 Maple Street.
 

Rolle, Andrew. Los Angeles: From Pueblo to City of the Future. San Francisco, Calif.: Boyd & Fraser Publishing Co. 1981. ISBN 0-87835-119-1. Excellent for primary sources and background reading for the teacher to gain additional information about the days of Early Los Angeles.

Shelby, Anne. Homeplace. Illustrations by Wendy Anderson Halperin. New York: Orchards Books, 1995. ISBN 0-531-06882-X. A grandmother and grandchild trace all that happens in their family history. Homeplace shows how one house has changed from almost two hundred years ago.

Sweeney, Joan. Me on the Map. Illustrated by Annette Cable. New York: Dragonfly Books, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1996. ISBN 0-517-88557-3. A child describes how her room, her house, her town, her state, and her country become part of a map of her world.

Taylor, Barbara. Maps and Mapping. New York: Kingfisher Books, 1993. ISBN 1- 85697-936-9. Explains what maps are and why they are used. It introduces symbols found on maps and describes how cartographers map the world.

“Timeline” Watertown, Mass.: Towm Snyder Productions, 1994. A program for developing a chronological computerized timeline for the classroom.

Thomas Bros. Maps, Educational Foundation 17731 Cowan, Irvine, CA. Phone (800) 899-MAPS; Voice (714) 863-1984; Web site: www.thomas.com

Treays, Rebecca. My Town. Illustrated by Rachel Wells. Tulsa, Oklahoma: EDC Publishing, 1998. ISBN 0-7460-3079-7. Bright and busy book that looks at life in a town through the eyes of a young child and introduces some basic concepts of geography and community change over time. Contains many fold-out to introduce map-reading skills and encourage readers to think about their own environment. One fold-out sections shows a town from the present to the past, in six 50 year increments.

Tscharner, Renata Von, and Ronald Lee Fleming. New Providence; A changing Cityscape. Illustrations by Denis Orloff. Washington DC: Preservation Press, 1992. The text and wonderful illustrations trace the evolution of an imaginary, but typical, American city form the turn of the century to 1990’s.

Wheatley, Nadia. My Place. Long Beach, Australia: In Print Inc., 1989. ISBN 0-7328- 00202. This is a good resource for teaching the concept of change in one location over time. My Place is set in Australia and takes place over a 200 year period.
 
 

Resources for Other Topics

The American Girls Club Handbook . Middleton, WI: Pleasant Company, 1997. This book provides historical background information about different time periods in American History. It takes through the lives of six different girls representing the six different time periods from 1774 (American Revolution) to 1944 (World War II). The handbook contains fictional historical stories and fun craft projects for each time period.

The American Girls Club Premiere CD ROM. The Learning Company and Pleasant Company. 1997. This CD ROM (WIN & MAC) motivates students to recreate a historical event and write creative or fictional stories and plays through the use of various historical graphics, background settings, buildings, and artifacts particular to each time period in American History.

Bringing the World to Your Classroom. Skokie, Illinois: Rand McNally, 1996. This CD-ROM program for PC or Macintosh lets students examine the world in spatial terms, places and regions physical and human systems, environment and the use of geography.

Van Cleave, Janice. Geography for Every Kid: Easy Activities That Make Learning Geography Fun. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993. ISBN 0-471-59841-0. The author introduces basic concepts of geography through simple problems and activities such as relief maps and making a compass