Mrs. Mason

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Fifth Grade

Chapter 4:  How and Why Europeans Came to the Americas
 
The Essential Question: What did explorers take to and from the New World during the Age of Exploration?

Overview

Students learn how and why explorers set out for the New World in the late 1400s and in the 1500s. In the Preview, students list tools they would use to

plan and take a family trip and the problems they might experience without these tools. In a Social Studies Skill Builder, pairs take on the role of underwater

archaeologists to examine objects from an explorer’s ship. After reading about the objects, students categorize them as navigation tools, motives for

exploration, or new products from the Americas. In Reading Further, students improvise act-it-outs to bring to life four key events of that time. In the

Processing activity, students write an entry in an exploration log.

Objectives

Social Studies Component

• Make connections between exploration in the 1400s and 1500s and exploration today.

• Identify and record key information about objects on an explorer’s ship.

• Categorize eight objects of exploration as one of the following: a navigation tool, a motive for exploration, or a newly introduced product from the

Americas.

Language Arts Component

• Improvise act-it-outs of four key events of the period. (speaking and listening)

• Write an entry in an exploration log. (writing)

Social Studies Vocabulary

New World, Age of Exploration, explorer, archaeologist, astrolabe, the Americas, cash crop, nation-state.
 
Test Study Guide
 
The objectives of this chapter shall serve as the first part of the study guide. In addition to meeting the objectives, students will be
 
asked to identify objects brought from Europe and objects found in the Americas. Students will be expected to explain the purpose each 
 
object served.