Columbus Day Activities for 1st and 2nd Grade

It's Fall and school is back in session and in full swing, whether your kids go to traditional schools or they are homeschooled.

With that in mind, I soured the web for some fun, interesting Columbus Day activities to include in your homeschool program or as a supplement to school.

Here are my favorites:

Columbus Day Race from Education.com

http://www.education.com/activity/article/columbus-day-boat-race/



This next one is awesome from Busy Teachers Café

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/themes/columbus.html

There are so many activities to choose from. Since they span almost all subject areas, I'm thinking this would work great as a Unit Study.

Apples for the Teacher has a nice timeline of the events surrounding Columbus' adventure.

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/columbus-day/facts.html

Enchanted Homeschooling has some neat ideas!



http://enchantedhomeschoolingmom.org/2011/10/columbus-day-activities/

Here are some things we'll be doing besides reading about Columbus' travels. We will be working on a maze, doing a word search, and putting Columbus Day words in alphabetical order. These are all ideas that you can do yourself and will be lots of fun for the kids.

Check out what we did last year HERE! and Happy Homeschooling Adventures!

2nd Grade Christopher Columbus lesson

This week we focused our History lessons on Christopher Columbus (quite appropriate, wouldn't you say?)

I would love to say that I planned this informative, fun filled week of history. But I can't. Since I decided at the last minute to do a unit on Christopher Columbus, I really didn't have enough time to plan out a great lesson. So off to the internet I go in search of kid friendly information and some fun activities.

I was so lucky to come across a couple of free sites that had some really great information. So, I compiled what I liked and put together my own lesson to make a complete study of Columbus. Everything you need to teach your kids about Christopher Columbus at the elementary school level is right here. Buttercup is doing 2nd grade work, but I think this lesson would be great for a 1st grade level or even a 3rd grade level.

And I am thrilled to let you know that I found the story here and the puzzles and coloring pages here.

I gathered information and activities from both sites and here's what I got:

• A simple story with illustrations
• A worksheet with fill in the blanks and matching activities
• A lesson on past tense verbs
• Two word scramble games
• A search and find word game
• Three pages for coloring (Columbus' three ships)

 

I thought the story was a little simple for my 2nd grader, but it was fun talking about what she read. We took it a step further and got out a huge map of the world and Buttercup showed me where Columbus left from and where he wanted to go. Then she showed me where he wound up.

 

I really liked the writing activities; they were not too long or boring, just enough to keep her interested. Since Buttercup loves puzzles, I knew she'd have no problem with the 3 that were included. Puzzles are like a treat for her, she doesn't think of them as work, even word puzzles! Yay, I love that about her.

 

Of course, her favorite part was the coloring. Even I got in on the fun!!

So if you're looking for some great but simple ways to teach your kids about Columbus, I highly recommend this lesson.

 These are the free sites I used, TeacherVision and Classroom Jr.


Disclosure: I found these sites on my own and was not asked to do a review. I'm simply spreading the love, because I truly think this was an awesome find.

Happy Homeschooling Adventures!