Columbus Day Lesson Plan for Children

When you are planning a Columbus Day lesson plan, you want to be sure and make it as simple and easily understood for children. Planning a fun Columbus Day lesson plan will help your children understand what Columbus Day is all about.

The first step in planning a Columbus Day lesson plan is to have your children sit down at the computer and watch a free video with them on Christopher Columbus. There are several videos including a cartoon video on You Tube called Mel-O-Toons: Christopher Columbus and a Columbus Day video on MSN video called History of the Holidays: Columbus Day. Both of these are great videos for your children to watch.

The story is very simple, on August 3, in 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who were the rulers of the Spanish Kingdom of Castile and Aragon, agreed to give three ships for Christopher Columbus to sail west into unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The ships were named the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Christopher Columbus was trying to find an easier route for their trading ships and he thought he could reach Asia by heading west. The King and Queen promised to make him governor of any new lands that he might find as well as 10% of any wealth that he could bring to Spain. After 70 days of sailing, on the morning of October 12, 1942, they landed on one of the islands of the Bahamas. In 1937 President Roosevelt proclaimed that October 12^th would be the day that we observed Columbus Day and in 1971, President Nixon declared Columbus Day as a national holiday to be observed the second Monday of October.

After you watch the Columbus Day video of your choice, you can talk the children about the video and make some fun Columbus crafts that your children will love. A wonderful Columbus Day craft activity is to make Egg Cup Ships and name them the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The Kaboose website has all the instructions to make this wonderful Columbus Day craft and all you need is three cardboard egg cups, brown acrylic craft paint, modeling clay or play dough, toothpicks, white plain paper, scissors, and white craft glue. You can find all the instructions here on the Kaboose website.

After you have made your boat, you can make a Christopher Columbus puppet using a template from the Scholastic website here. You can also find a Christopher Columbus hat template on the Scholastic website here. Your children will love to play with their boats wearing their Christopher Columbus hat.

Depending on your child's age, the Enchanted Learning website has some wonderful printable activities that you can choose from. There is a Columbus Day printable writing book, a Columbus Day activity book, Christopher Columbus Map printable activity, Columbus Day spelling word activity, Columbus Day puzzle, and much more.

By using the videos and making the Christopher Columbus boats, hat, and puppet, your children will get a better understanding why we celebrate Columbus Day.