Third graders enjoyed the annual “Explorers’ Day,” a day devoted to learning about North America's most famous explorers and their discoveries.
Students completed projects at home, while studying explorers in class, and presented those projects to their classmates.
“Students presented facts about an explorer, the country that sent them, reasons the explorer went, and what he accomplished” said Beverly Smyly, third-grade teacher. “They also gave a presentation on their explorer which often included some really fun or unusual facts.”
Each student also created an "as authentic-as-possible" replica of the explorer’s ship, and labeled the basic parts of the ship. Some students presented their explorers using a project board, others made a exploration scrapbook, others performed a monologue dressed as the
explorer, and others wrote and performed a song about the explorer.
“Alaina O'Conner took the song challenge sang a song she had written, to her own piano accompaniment which she had recorded on a SmartPhone. Several others presented monologues or scrapbooks, and there were many decorative project boards,” said Smyly.
Some of the explorers the students studied were Juan Ponce de Leon, John Cabot, Henry Hudson, Hernando de Soto, Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer and mapmaker who is credited with the European discovery of America.