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\nThe legacy of Christopher Columbus is a controversial topic, but the Age of Exploration that began with his voyage to America is a major turning point in history. Acknowledging that significance is important in the Social Studies curriculum, so here are five activities and lesson plans that celebrate Columbus Day and exploration more specifically.<\/p>\n
Pumpkin Geography<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n This great activity from the NEA teaches kids geography in a fun and exciting way. Treat your pumpkin as a globe, showing all seven continents. To make this Fall fun more relatable to Columbus, have your students paint Columbus\u2019 route from Spain to the Americas.<\/p>\n Columbus Day Boat Races<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Incorporate science into your lessons on Columbus\u2019 voyage by crafting sailboats and monitoring their success. Students will love crafting the vessels and the trial and error involved in making them stay afloat.<\/p>\n Columbus Day Reader\u2019s Theater<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n Invigorate students\u2019 imaginations with this play that includes roles of real life characters. Reader\u2019s theater<\/a> encourages students to interact with the script by rehearsing and mapping out their movements. It\u2019s a terrific team building tool, and assists the audience in understanding the content.<\/p>\n Columbus: Hero or Villain<\/strong><\/p>\n High school age students can have a reasoned and informed debate about the role of Columbus in American history and cultural significance. There are various resources to engage in discussion about his legacy, such as this CBS News story<\/a> or this Washington Post<\/a> article. After discussing the controversy as a class, allow your students to post their thoughts on Debate.org<\/a> which solicits comments from readers and archives them. This writing assignment forces their rationale to be brief, but pointed. This ABC News story<\/a> suggests alternatives to Columbus Day. Ask your students to support or oppose each alternative and to create their own Columbus Day replacement to suit all parties involved in the debate. Help Teaching also has a free printable multiple choice test<\/a> that examines all sides of Columbus legacy.<\/p>\n Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Many writings from Columbus\u2019 voyage are available for use by teachers. The magnificent Gilder Lehrman Institute provides a unit of study for students<\/a> to think like a historian in dissecting Columbus\u2019 letters. This unit provides step by step instruction, as well as primary sources. Students become investigators, drawing conclusions from Columbus’ own words and actions.<\/p>\n Christopher Columbus\u2019 voyage and legacy is a topic that fascinates students. Finding ways to integrate the history with interactive and challenging activities makes the history come alive. For more options for disseminating information on Columbus and other explorers, check out our post Graphic Organizers in the Social Studies Classroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The legacy of Christopher Columbus is a controversial topic, but the Age of Exploration that began with his voyage to America is a major turning point in history. Acknowledging that significance is important in the Social Studies curriculum, so here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[122],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\nHigh School<\/h3>\n