Summary
This is an activity to help solidify knowledge and review after a unit on the European Explorers and uses map skills. The students act out the route that the explorers took on a large map of the world on the playground. This activity is good for 2 classes to do together.
Essential Question(s)
What route did each explorer take on their journey? Where did they go and why did they go there?
Snapshot
Engage Students recreate the routes of the Spanish and Portuguese explorers on a map.
Explore Some students will be standing on the map to help guide the students who get explorer cards and reenact the route that their explorer took on their journey.
Explain Doing this with a partner teacher and 2 classes is recommended. One teacher passes out the explorer cards and verifies with the student that they know where they are going. One teacher is on the map and helps them on their journey so they do not get lost.
Extend Students will draw each explorer’s route on a map.
Evaluate Students will be able to verbally tell about the route any explorer took on their journey.
Materials
Map template for the students to draw their explorer routes on.
Prepare the map field using laminated place names. Either students will hold them or they can be put on cones.
Place names and Explorer names are included in resources.
Engage
Tell the students that today they will "be the explorers" that we have been talking about. They will follow their routes and act out where they traveled on a large map on the playground.
Explore
Pick random kids to stand on a place on the map. (Someone is standing in Africa, in North America, etc.) These kids will be able to point the "explorers" in the direction they should be going.
The rest of the class will line up in a straight line. Hand out a note card with the explorer’s name on it to the first kid and tell them who they are. They must tell you where they start the journey and where they will end up. They can be directed by the teacher when they are not sure of the answer. Then they go out and "do the journey" on the map. They must find the locations and places relevant to their explorer. Repeat with the rest of the kids in line. When the first student finishes his "journey", he brings the card back and it goes to the next kid in line and he goes to the end of the line. Each student will get to "be" several explorers before time is up. There are many explorers so several students can be on the map at the same time.
Half way through the lesson, switch out kids who have been standing at stations with kids who have been in line so that everyone gets a chance to "be" explorers.
Explain
As the students are acting out the explorer journey, they are assisted so that they are doing the correct route. It is easier to do this with a partner teacher and 2 classes so that one teacher can be handing cards to students and the other can be on the map to help them on their journey.
Extend
2nd Day: Give students a map template.
Have them draw on the map where each explorer went using a different color for each explorer, and label the colors and their explorer in a map key.
Evaluate
Differentiation for Gifted Learners
On the map they make of the explorer routes, they can look up 2 new explorers we did not talk about and add them to their map.
Resources
Laminated cards for locations
Laminated 3X5 cards with Explorer names on them
Map of the world template for students to fill out
