Unique Columbus Day Lesson Plans

Each year, we have a goal to teach meaningful and educational lessons about different holidays. Don’t get us wrong, we love giving kids holiday-themed activities (like making those oh-so-cute holiday crafts) but we were ready for a change. We wanted something more academic without sacrificing the fun!

Normally on Columbus Day we read a cute story and then do some kind of art project, but we really wanted to dig deeper into these important events in history and teach the students something new and interesting. We wanted fun AND educational lessons. Is that too much to ask?

Finding all the right resources and materials on Christopher Columbus proved to be quite difficult, so we tried something new! We integrated close reading and interactive drama together to engage the students!

How did we structure a Columbus Day lesson?

During the day’s lessons, the class read a complex text on those famous 1492 events and then practiced their text coding skills as they re-read portions of the text, searching for evidence and answers to the strategic text dependent questions we asked. (Find out more about text dependent questioning here!)

   

After reading and coding the text, students filled out a main idea graphic organizer and sequenced a timeline of events based on their reading.

We used the beautiful illustrations from the text to have really good class conversations about dialogue, and we predicted what some of the people would have been talking about in each picture, summarizing what we learned from the text.

Of course, the students’ favorite part was making a tableau of the illustrations from the text. The students worked together in small groups to decide what the actors would be doing and what the narrators would say.

The actors and narrators collaborated in each group to create a tableau that really demonstrated their understanding of the events from the text.

Here is an example of a group planning sheet for our Columbus tableau- interactive drama activity!

The kids loved creating (and especially PERFORMING) their tableaus with each other!

This close reading and interactive drama lesson about Christopher Columbus was very meaningful and engaging for students! The activities supported students (even our cute firsties) in remembering this important time in history.

Are you feeling like you don’t have time to make your own materials but you want to teach meaningful, memorable lessons too?

Then, we’ve created amazing Christopher Columbus lesson plans just for you!

Check out our unique, integrated, interactive, dramatic, Columbus Day packs for primary and upper grades- complete with detailed lesson plans, printable complex text, text coding posters, tableau planning sheets, and simple costumes.

And keep scrolling for even more resource ideas we love to use!

 Grab the Grades 1-3 Columbus Lesson Integrated Plans by clicking on the image below:

Or, grab the Grades 4-6 Columbus Integrated Lesson Plans by clicking this image below:

Here are some age-appropriate resources that we found while we were on the initial search for the right materials. We have enjoyed supplementing our lesson plans with these books and videos, having our students compare and contrast these resources with the Christopher Columbus printable texts from our packs.

Younger Grade Columbus Resources- Video and Picture Book

Upper Grade Columbus Resources- Video and Book