God is good. We had such a fun day with our friends. I had to get on and post the cute photos I took… I apologize in advance that they are dark and grainy. I had to use my camcorder to take pictures because my digital had no juice.
Here are some things we did for our Columbus Day Unit Study:
- We read “History Maker Bios: Christopher Columbus
” by Susan Bivin Aller together and discussed as we read it
- We found Italy, Portugal, The Atlantic Ocean, India, China, Japan, San Salvador, Hispaniola, Cuba, Haiti, South America, Jamaica, and Spain on a map
- See a map of the “known world” in the 1400’s before the discovery of the “New World”
- Read the poem “In 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue”
- Pretend you are a sailor on one of Columbus’ ships and write a ship’s log
- Discuss how the crew might have felt when they didn’t find gold, and when they met the “Indians”… and how they might have felt being left behind
- Discuss being shipwrecked for a year on an island (as Columbus was on another voyage), and how it might have been meeting cannibals
- Draw, Write Now!
Handwriting and Art project – Draw the three ships: Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria (discuss which ship sank and why)
- Discuss different types of landmasses: Island and Peninsula
- Do Columbus crossword puzzle worksheet, word search worksheet, and alphabetizing worksheet
- Make a salt-dough “map” in the shape of Italy, bake it, cool it, and paint it
- Write our Bible Verse for the day: “Psalm 37:5 – Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”
- Read from the Kid’s Presidential Prayer Website about Columbus and other interesting information for today
- Paint the continents on a large poster board
- Paint three small “ships” (made from egg carton, popsicle sticks and little paper sails)
- Chart the course of Columbus on our map with our boats, locate key points (see list above)
- Do a quiz over the information we learned today with our friends (WOW, did they remember it all! I was shocked!)
Here are some cute pictures of our fun day with friends:
Four Craftsmen working on their Caravels…

Two “Italian” Painters

Looks like Italy got nuked…

My favorite homeschooled navigators set sail on the ocean blue…


Two “Italian” Painters

Looks like Italy got nuked…

My favorite homeschooled navigators set sail on the ocean blue…

Just wanted to say that I followed suit with your previous email about ideas for Columbus day and we had an awesome “off-track” 🙂 day!! The kids loved everything I had throwed together for them to do. Thanks for taking the time to post it all!
Rachel