Today 3rd graders in Ms. Szakal and Mrs. Shaffer’s class created projects about the expeditions of the four European explorers: Christopher Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Jacques Cartier and Christopher Newport. We used ScribbleMaps to draw the pathway each explorer took on their first expedition. The students took a screenshot of their maps and then uploaded each map as a background on PowerPoint slides. Next, students added a little ship and used the action pathway animations to make the ship move from Europe to their destination in or near America. This lesson really challenged the students to locate specific places on a map as well as practice recalling where the explorers sailed. Check out Collin’s (all went well until Newport sailed to Richmond instead of Jamestown on the last slide. He was SO close! haha):
