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Unit Plan
Core Knowledge Foundation

European Exploration of North America Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology

For Teachers 3rd Standards
Third graders listen to read-alouds and participate in extension activities about European Explorers—Christopher Columbus, Juan Ponce de León, Hernando de Soto, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, John Cabot, Henry Hudson, and Samuel de...
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Unit Plan
Core Knowledge Foundation

Third Grade Skills Unit 9: The Age of Exploration

For Teachers 3rd Standards
The Age of Exploration is the theme of a unit designed to boost third-grade ELA skills. Scholars practice spelling patterns, examine words with prefixes and suffixes, build sentences with linking words, and use comparative and...
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Unit Plan
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Core Knowledge Foundation

Frontier Explorers Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology

For Teachers 1st Standards
The last read-aloud anthology in the series showcases frontier explorers. First graders listen to texts about Daniel Boone, crossing the Appalacian Mountains, Lewis and Clark, dangers on the prairie, and more. After reading, pupils...
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Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Impact of the U.S. Expansion on Indigenous People and Stereotypes About Native American People

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
The 2004 U.S. bicentennial sparks a discussion about its meaning and importance to United States history. Readings, maps, tables, and reflective writing prompt small groups to explore the westward expansion, Lewis and Clark, and how...
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Lesson Plan
Space Awareness

Navigating with the Kamal

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
Historians have proven that as early as 1497 skilled navigators were using a kamal to sail across oceans. Scholars learn about navigation tools and astronomy before building their own kamals. They then learn how to use it to determine...
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Unit Plan
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Voyagers: Challenge Activities (Theme 5)

For Teachers 3rd
Young voyagers face the challenge of the wide dark sea, travel with Yunmi and Halmoni, and even get trapped by the ice as they explore the reading selections offered in these enrichment activities designed for the Houghton Mifflin...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Colonization of the United States

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Bring the Age of Exploration into the 21st century with this ancestry activity! Learners get a chance to explore the complex genealogy of the Spanish settlers through watching two video clips (approximately five minutes each) featuring...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Christopher Columbus Jeopardy PowerPoint

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students engage in a Jeopardy-style PowerPoint presentation on the life of Christopher Columbus. The categories are Columbus, Santa Maria, Nina, Pinta, Parts of a Ship. This excellent resource should lead to a firm understanding of...
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PPT
Curated OER

Glory, God and Gold: Voyages and Adventures - America 1500

For Teachers 2nd - 7th
By providing an in-depth and interesting overview of European exploration in the New World, this presentation would be a wonderful complement to a unit on this topic. The 17 slide presentation is both thought-provoking and informative....
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Unit Plan
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Core Knowledge Foundation

Columbus and the Pilgrims Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology

For Teachers K Standards
A read-aloud anthology focuses on Columbus and the pilgrims. Young scholars listen to several stories covering Christopher Columbus, the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, pilgrims, meeting Native Americans, and the first Thanksgiving. Nine...
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Interactive
Mr. Nussbaum

Lewis and Clark

For Students 5th - 7th Standards
An informational text focuses on Lewis and Clark. Scholars read the text and answer 10 questions to test their reading comprehension skills.
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Interactive
Mr. Nussbaum

Age of Exploration

For Students 4th - 6th Standards
An informational text focuses on the Age of Exploration. Scholars read the passage and then answer 10 questions to test their reading comprehension skills.
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Interactive
Mr. Nussbaum

Ponce de Leon

For Students 4th - 6th Standards
An informational text about Ponce de Leon tests scholars' reading comprehension skills. Learners read the text and then answer 10 questions. Question types include multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank.
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Statues of Christopher Columbus

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Scholars compare statues of Columbus and discuss how each memorial captures his personality. Academics also complete a worksheet and discuss how some people have called to remove statues honoring Columbus. 
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Unit Plan
Simon & Schuster

Classroom Activities for Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Kon-Tiki, the record of Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 raft journey across the Pacific Ocean, is the focus of three classroom activities. In a lesson on connotation and bias language, class members record instances of Heyerdahl's word choice....
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Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

Fossils

For Students 6th - 12th
Sixteen slides showcase an average day on the job for a paleontologist, Ross MacPhee. Engaging images include world maps and real-world photographs from an archeological dig in Antarctica. A brief description accompanies each slide.
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Lewis and Clark's Expedition to the Complex West

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Lewis and Clark's famous expedition is a prime example of the United States' westward expansion. Aspiring historians examine maps from Lewis and Clark's journey, as well as discuss their interactions with Native American tribes. The...
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Assessment
Stanford University

Captain Cook

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Known as the first European to see places like Australia and New Zealand, Captain Cook led the way for the English into the world of exploration. A primary source image of Cook's firsthand account of his voyages and discussion questions...
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Worksheet
Reading Through History

Early History and Exploration Unit

For Students 8th - 12th Standards
We all know about Christopher Columbus, but who else explored the Americas, and specifically, the future United States of America? Learners find out these answers and more in a resource that includes four different reading sections,...
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Unit Plan
Missouri Department of Elementary

Equine Science

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Did you know that horses have two sets of teeth?  There is much to learn about horses, of course, and those interested in equine science will learn much from a 10-lesson agricultural science course that covers not only equine dental and...
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Lesson Plan
All About Explorers

How Could They Be so Wrong?

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
If it's on the Internet, it must be true ... right? Introduce young Internet explorers to the importance of fact-checking through a fun web-based activity. Pairs work together to read and analyze biographies about world explorers, then...
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Lesson Plan
Channel Islands Film

First Contact: Lesson Plan 4 - Grades 5-6

For Students 5th - 6th Standards
After watching Treasure in the Sea, a documentary about Channel Islands National Park and the video First Contact, about the voyage of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo to the Channel islands, groups research and then compare the experiences of...
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Lesson Plan
Space Awareness

Britannia Rule the Waves

For Teachers 9th - 11th Standards
Could you determine longitude based on measuring time? Early explorers used a longitude clock to do just that. Scholars learn about early exploration and the importance of the invention of the clock. Then pupils build their own longitude...
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Lesson Plan
Messenger Education

Exploring Exploring

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
The reason people first began trading was because of their desires for objects other societies possessed. In the activity, classes discuss why exploration has been a common thread in all societies and where these desires have taken...