Although I technically teach a self-contained 5th grade classroom, because of teaming in our building, much of my day is spent teaching Social Studies.  During my research for this assignment, I found a great many sites that would add a great deal to the instruction that I give.

Museum:  The Virtual Museum that I chose was the Smithsonian National Museum of American History which is found at http://americanhistory.si.edu/.  This museum has many virtual exhibits to explore, but the one that particularly caught my eye was the one on the Star Spangled Banner.  I had the opportunity to visit the real exhibit many years ago and have found if difficult to describe the awesome presentation of it to my students.  This exhibit gives the history of the flag, how it has been taken care of over the years, how the song came to be written, and it shows what the flag looks like today.  By visiting this sight, students can get a better sense of what it is like to actually visit this great symbol of our country.  Since very little time is actually spent on teaching the War of 1812 (1-2 days), use of this sight could help to expand on what little our Social Studies series has to offer.

Collaborative Project:  For the last few years my classes have done a living history project where small groups work together with a mentor to research a topic of 19th century history and present what they have learned by reenacting it for the public.  One topic that was not covered this year, but has been in the past, is the Underground Railroad.  I believe that having a group of students work on the collaborative project A Journey on the Underground Railroad found at http://exchange.co-nect.net/Teleprojects/project/Railroad/  would give them a real personal understanding of what it was like to travel on the Underground Railroad.

Webquest:  I begin the year by teaching basic geography skills to my classes.  The WebQuest Longitude and Latitude found at http://www.longitudelatitude.f2s.com/webquest.html would be a great activity to help reinforce the concepts that they learn.  I particularly like this activity because it requires students to calculate distances and find maps and information about various locations around the world and share what they learn with the rest of the class.  I would have students spend a couple of days documenting their journeys and then spend another day sharing with the class.  This would be a great way for students to learn a lot about the world in a short period of time.
 

Other sites that I found that were of particular interest to me were:

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Saint Louis Science Center
The Undergound Railroad
and a WebQuest called Gold Rush Players!