This week we took a whirlwind tour of explorers who influenced Texas. We have a very short period of time to cover some really important information, and more importantly to make it stick. We started our week by taking notes on different explorers using this Explorer Fold-Up.
We did this on Wednesday, which just happened to be Leif Erickson Day! Many of my students had heard of Leif Erickson because of Spongebob. Hey, I will take some background knowledge anywhere I can get it.
We talk about all of the explorers' names and what if anything we already know about them. Then, using the Explorers PowerPoint we complete our information. I spend a lot of the time running back and forth from the presentation to our pull down map showing the explorers routes from Europe to the Americas.
After we have taken notes we respond to a few questions that aim to connect students with the explorers. Above you can see one of my students responding to the question, "Which explorer do you think had the most influence on Texas, and why?
Altogether, it is whole lot of information in a short period of time. Next week we will be working on connecting this information more so that students are able to remember it.
Thanks for sharing how you use your products in a lesson. We get very little time to teach social studies (insert very sad face here). I love Texas history and all things Texas. Unfortunately, Math & Science always override. Your concise items help me to teach our TEKS in a condensed format. Thanks for taking the time and for sharing!
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