Why Do We Celebrate Christopher Columbus Day?

Teaching Kindergartners About Christopher Columbus 

This link, Brain Pop Jr. has a great Columbus Day Video for kids, sequencing game, ship craft etc. 

Key questions for your students to Learn

Quick link to fun facts about Columbus for Children

National Geographic Video- Christopher Columbus Biography for kids

1. Who was he? A sailor / explorer
2. Where did he live/where was he from? Spain
3. What continent is Spain in? Europe 
4. Who paid for his voyage? The Queen and King
5. How many ships did he sail with? Three
6. What were the names of the ships: Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria
7. Where did he want to land? Asia/India
8. Why did he want to find a different route to Asia?
9. Did he reach his destination? No
10. Why not? His calculations were incorrect. He had no Idea  that he would run into the Americas. 
11. Where did he land? The Bahamas- North America 
12. Were there people there? YES!
13. What did they call them? Indians
14. Why did they call them Indians?  Because Columbus thought he landed in India.
15. What discoveries did he make? The Earth was not flat, it was indeed round and "New world"- The Americas. 

Learning The Seven Continents 

This is the Seven Continents song my students enjoyed.

Below is the song I taught my students:

Columbus' First Voyage

to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

Columbus sailed the ocean blue,

Ocean blue, ocean blue.

Columbus sailed the ocean blue

In 1492.

He sailed west to reach the east,

reach the east, reach the east,

He sailed west to reach the east

In 1492.

Asian shores he never reached,

Never reached, never reached,

Asian shores he never reached,

In 1492.

Instead, a whole new land he found,

Land he found, land he found,

Instead, a whole new land he found,

In 1492.

FREE ACTIVITIES 

Here are a few activities my kindergartners did. Feel free to click on the links to take you to the source I download them from.  

Pictures COMING SOON...