Maps tell many stories (they reveal history)

Occasionally I post older BUT STILL VERY USEABLE AND APPLICABLE geography resources. I hate to see great lessons just disappear into the teaching netherworld, when so many (especially new teachers) are scrambling to find good teaching materials all the time. This post/link/lesson plan is from from National Geography Week 1991 materials Geography: New Worlds to Explore.

In this lesson, students use three historic maps to examine how early European maps reflected the explorations of their day (primarily North American explorations).

LESSON 1 EXPLORING YESTERDAY --Maps Tell More than One Story (They Reveal History). I have scanned the lesson from the original copy that I have to share with you. I give all credit to National Geographic Geography Awareness Week 1991 for the following lesson plan:

(click on the pages to enlarge)

Columbus Day geography activities: old and new

When was Columbus Day declared a Federal Holiday?
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Columbus Day a federal holiday, to be celebrated on the second Monday in October. Columbus Day is the commemoration of Christopher Columbus's discovery of America.

(Illustration from Scholastic Newstime 10/4/91)

I used the following activity for many years with my students..it was an article/activity from either the Faces, Calliope, or Odyssey children's magazines? This is a great geography lesson to follow and locate all the trips and problems Christoper Columbus encountered on his high voyages: (double click on the images to enlarge)

Other Links and activities:

Library of Congress archives

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct12.html

Columbus Day art activities...many geography related

http://crafts.kaboose.com/columbus-day/

PBS/Nova Viking deception

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/3205_vinland.html

Some older resources from Columbus Quincentennial:

Columbus The Age of Discovery (companion volume to PBS series of same name)

by Zvi dor-Net, ISBN # 0-688-08545-8

(I couldn't find the the video series on the PBS site, might be available on DVD?)

Seeds of Change: 500 years since Columbus

by Herman Viola & Carolyn Margolis

http://publicprograms.ala.org/ltai/themes/seeds_broch.pdf

I, Columbus: My Journal

by Peter and Connie Roop

(children's literature) ISBN # 0-380-71545-7

(Have students track Columbus' voyages from the information in this easy-read book!)

Seeds of Change (related webquest)

www.asdk12.org/.../itech/teachers/curriculum/downloads/NewCulturesIndPeople/seedsochange.doc

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC RESOURCES:

1491 America Before Columbus, National Geographic Magazine, Oct/91

Where did Columbus Discover America? , National Geographic Map, Nov/86

Spain in the Americas, National Geographic map, 2/92

RETHINKING COLUMBUS:Teaching about the 500th Anniversary of Columbus's arrival in America (special edition of Rethinking Schools/Network of Educators on Central America, 1991, ISBN# 0-942961-14-5

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/columbus/columbus.shtml