Columbus Day

We had a pretty exciting day on Columbus day. We went downtown to watch the parade, and also did other activities when we arrived at home.

The images below were taken at the parade.

The three ships, Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria, loaded with Columbus Crew to his famous voyage.

There were many very well presented school bands performing.

My son's favorite part of the parade was the firefighters' truck :)).

A super cute Irish little boy steal the show :))).

After the parade we came home, had a little break and worked on to design a map. I found a great idea on Hallee the Homemaker website to create a map of the "new world" discovered by Columbus.
The following link is Hallee's website: http://www.halleethehomemaker.com

Materials to create the map: grocery bag, pencil, paint, tape, paint-brush, marker and rocks.

1st step: Sketch the map on the bag and burn the edges using matches to give an old effect.

2nd step: Ask your child to paint the new world (left side) brown,  Spain (right side) green, and the Ocean (middle) blue. Let it dry.

3rd step: We used rocks to create the ships. I wrote the name of the ships on each rock. Afterwards I printed three ships that I found on Google, and stuck it onto the rock with tape.

4th Step: Use a black mark to make an outline to the land masses. Write the words “New World” on the land mass in the upper left and “Spain” on the upper right land mass, on the left side of that piece of land. Draw a dotted line from “Spain” to the lower left land mass. Write September 6th 1492 close to the Spain side to demonstrate the day Columbus and his crew members left Spain. Write October 12th 1492 on the other side of the map to represent the day they arrived in the "new world".

I would also like to recommend two books we read: Christopher Columbus by Stephen Krensky, and Columbus Day by Vicki Liestman.

In addition, I download from TPT a complete and fun set to develop my son's understanding of Columbus' discovery. This set has math activities, poems, vocabulary practice, and lots of writing practice as well.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/1492-Columbus-Day-Math-and-Literacy-Activities

The image below is an example of one of the writing activities we did that was suggested in the set I download from TPT.

Columbus day was yesterday but the aforementioned could be ideas for next year :)).

Have a wonderful week. Thanks!!!

Fabiana