Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Teaching With Primary Sources: Hispanic Exploration in America [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This is a great lesson plan from the Library of Congress that shows how to use primary sources in the examination of the Spanish Conquistadors in America. The lesson plan offers many possible activities for learners to use with the...
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Los Castillos Del Viejo San Juan: Guardianes Del Caribe

For Students 9th - 10th
A great site for Spanish Exploration. See one of the greatest fortresses in the Western Hemisphere. King Phillip IV called it "The front and vanguard of all my West Indies, and consequently the most important of them all and the most...
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Exploration and Colonization of America

For Students 9th - 10th
Given short summaries about the reasons for European exploration and colonization of North America, students will compare English and Spanish settlements in the New World.
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: The Forts of Old San Juan: Guardians of the Caribbean

For Students 9th - 10th
Visit such Spanish sites in Puerto Rico as El Morro, the fort that provided the keystone to protection of the Spanish Empire that spread across the Caribbean. Many photographs and drawings.
Website
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Colonial Williamsburg: Numismatics: Coins and Currency in Colonial America

For Students 9th - 10th
Valuable lessons in the history of Europeans' early exploration and settlement of America can be gained by following the money used in trade. Coins and Currency exhibition lets you examine evidence of Spanish, British, Dutch, French, and...
Graphic
Other

American Journeys: Map of the Spanish Entrada Into North America [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Map showing the routes taken by fourteen Spanish explorers in the Americas between 1509 and 1543.
Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Spanish, American Beginnings: 1492 1690

For Students 9th - 10th
Two maps and four accounts of the Spanish exploration of North America that reflect the goals of the conquistadors and fascination with the land they examined-and the brutality of their treatment of native peoples.
Lesson Plan
Texas State Historical Association

Texas State Historical Association: European Exploration [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 8th
An activity guide where students refer to the Texas Almanac, which is free to download, for information needed to complete assigned tasks. For this lesson, students are asked to research Spanish and French explorers and create a 'living...
Website
University of Calgary

European Voyages of Exploration: 15th & 16th Centuries

For Students 9th - 10th
This award-winning website from the University of Calgary's History Department is both impressive and extensive. It focuses on Portuguese and Spanish expeditions of the 15th and 16th centuries (the sitemap provides a good outline of...
Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The Literature of Exploration

For Students 9th - 10th
Had history taken a different turn, the United States easily could have been a part of the great Spanish or French overseas empires. Its present inhabitants might speak Spanish and form one nation with Mexico, or speak French and be...
Handout
Texas State Historical Association

Texas State Historical Association: Early European Exploration and Development

For Students 9th - 10th
A chronological timeline of early European exploration and development in Texas spanning from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Website
Soft Schools

Soft Schools: Amerigo Vespucci Timeline

For Students 9th - 10th
A timeline illustrating the significant events of Amerigo Vespucci's life and legacy. Amerigo Vespucci is credited for being the first explorer to "discover" America by stating that it was a new country, not the West Indies.
Graphic
University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas: Exploration and Settlement Before 1675

For Students 9th - 10th
A great map showing the explorations of Spanish, French, and English explorers in North America between 1530 and 1675. A detailed key identifies each explorer and route. From the Perry-Castaneda Collection
Primary
Harvard University

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program: Spanish Influenza

For Students 9th - 10th
Students investigate Spanish influenza in North America. Some topics explored are reactions, responses, and legacies of Spanish influenza. Additional resources include web pages, manuscripts, references, and publications.
Website
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Ninety-four primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the challenges, opportunity, and turmoil of late-nineteenth-century America. They examine the economic expansion in an America re-united...
Unit Plan
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Jamestown, Quebec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings

For Students 9th - 10th
Explore the origins of Canada and the United States as Jamestown, Quebec, and Santa Fe celebrate their 400th anniversary.
Handout
Geographyiq

Geography Iq: Peru

For Students 9th - 10th
Comprehensive site that gives you "Facts at a Glance" or more in-depth information about such topics as geography, people, economy, climate, or foreign relations. Have fun exploring the South American country of Peru.
Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1491 1607: Environmental/health Effects in New World

For Students 9th - 10th
European arrival in the Americas decimated both indigenous people and previously-flourishing ecosystems.
Article
Bullock Texas State History Museum

Bullock Museum: American Indians

For Students 9th - 10th
Immerse in the campfire stories of the people who defined Texas. Find out about how the two Americas: the Europeans' version, and the American Indians' version, started changing forever.
Website
Other

Smithsonian Institution: Musica Del Pueblo

For Students 9th - 10th
Musica del Pueblo is a full-featured resource that explores the traditions of Latino music. Using a colorful mural titled "Song of Unity" as a navigation tool, visitors can watch videos of performances, listen to different varieties of...
Graphic
Digital Public Library of America

Dpla: American Empire

For Students 9th - 10th
This exhibition explores the origins, development, and eventual fall of the American empire and maps the diverse and rocky terrain of the American empire to show how it informs contemporary conversations on heritage, citizenship, racism,...
Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The First Europeans

For Students 9th - 10th
The first Europeans to arrive in North America -- at least the first for whom there is solid evidence -- were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is...
Graphic
Curated OER

Inscription Rock, New Mexico

For Students 9th - 10th
Two maps and four accounts of the Spanish exploration of North America that reflect the goals of the conquistadors and fascination with the land they examined-and the brutality of their treatment of native peoples.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Contact: First Impressions

For Teachers 9th - 10th
English, Spanish, and Portuguese maps and letters of about the voyages of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and Portuguese explorer, Gaspar Corte Real, which describe impressions of the lands explored.