“Become a Map-Maker and Explorer”
Use this lesson plan to celebrate Geography Awareness Week and commemorate Magellan’s arrival at the Pacific Ocean in November of 1520. Students will practice key geography vocabulary and learn about Magellan’s contributions. They’ll create a map tracing his route to the Pacific and use the vocabulary they learn to write a paragraph from Magellan’s point of view, describing his journey. Students will then make maps of a location at school and use classmates’ maps to navigate.
Students will:
- Learn or review key geography vocabulary related to map skills, oceans and landforms;
- Create a map tracing Magellan’s route to the Pacific Ocean;
- Write a paragraph from Magellan’s point of view about his journey using geography vocabulary;
- Create and use a map of a location at school.
Standards
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.8
Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.7
Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.2
Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2.D
Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.A
Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
National Geographic Geography Standards
- Geography Standard 1: How to use maps and other geographic representations, geospatial technologies, and spatial thinking to understand and communicate information
The student is able to:
- A. Identify and describe the properties (position and orientation, symbols, scale, perspective, coordinate systems) and functions of geographic representations, as exemplified by being able to identify and describe the properties of a variety of maps and globes (e.g., title, legend, cardinal and intermediate directions, scale, symbols, grid, principal parallels, meridians) and purposes (wayfinding, reference, thematic).
- B. Construct maps and graphs to display geospatial data, as exemplified by being able to construct a map that displays geospatial data using symbols explained in a key (e.g., a sketch map to illustrate a narrative story, a map of cars in the school parking lot showing type and color, a classroom map showing different types of tables, desks, and chairs).
Materials
- Flocabulary Map Skills video, Oceans video and Landforms & Bodies of Water video
- Mapmaking worksheet
- Optional: map of the world
Products Created
- A map showing Magellan’s route to the Pacific Ocean
- A paragraph written from Magellan's point of view that includes geography vocabulary
- A map of a location at school
Time
- 2-3 class periods
Sequence
- Review with students that geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Tell students you’re going to be discussing an event related to geography that happened in November about 500 years ago.
- Ask students what it means to explore, and guide them to a definition such as “looking at something carefully and studying it to learn more about it.” Explain to students that Ferdinand Magellan was an explorer who was born in the year 1480 in Portugal, a country on the continent of Europe. When Magellan was 12, he was sent to live and work in the Queen of Portugal’s court. He studied subjects like cartography, or map-making, and astronomy, the study of stars and space. (If you'd like, discuss the connection between cartography and astronomy.) He became very interested in sea exploration and sailed on several journeys on Portuguese ships.
- Play the Map Skills video and review map vocabulary as a class, such as legend, scale, compass rose and symbol.
- Use a map to show and explain that in Magellan’s time, explorers had successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean, but no one had yet sailed to the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic. There was a group of islands in the Pacific, the Moluccas, or Maluku Islands, that people called “the Spice Islands.” The islands produced valuable spices that the Europeans wanted to trade. In September of 1519, Magellan and his fleet, or group of ships, set sail from Spain to try to find a sea route to the Spice Islands.
- Play the Oceans video, and review the names and locations of the oceans. Play the video again, and pause it to trace Magellan’s route:
-His fleet sailed from Spain across the Atlantic and down the east coast of South America. In Magellan’s time, the Atlantic Ocean was called “the Ocean Sea.” Magellan began to look for a way to get around the southern tip of South America. In October 1520, he finally discovered a strait, or a narrow body of water that connects two larger bodies of water. This strait connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This strait was named the Strait of Magellan after him. Here, you can optionally play the Landforms & Bodies of Water video and review vocabulary like strait, coast, plains and peninsula.
-It took Magellan and his fleet a month to sail through the strait, which had cold, dangerous waters. In November 1520, they made it to the other side of the strait and reached the Pacific Ocean. They became the first people to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, which was not actually called the “Pacific Ocean” at this time. Magellan called this body of water “Mar Pacifico,” which is Spanish for “Pacific Ocean.” “Pacific” means “peaceful,” and Magellan gave the ocean this name because the waters appeared peaceful to him.
-Magellan and his fleet then sailed for three months across the Pacific Ocean. They reached the Philippine Islands, where Magellan became involved in a war between two of the islands and was killed. One of his ships, the Victoria, continued onto the Spice Islands. Its crew then sailed back to Spain, circumnavigating, or sailing all the way around, the globe. - Have students complete page 1 of the worksheet, making a map that shows Magellan’s route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They’ll label the continents, oceans, the Strait of Magellan and Magellan’s route and fill in a legend, scale and compass rose.
- Tell students that they’re now going to imagine themselves as Magellan, writing in his journal on his expedition from Spain to the Pacific Ocean. On page 2 of the worksheet, students can write a paragraph from Magellan’s point of view, describing details like sights and sounds on the boat. Their paragraphs should include at least three vocabulary words from the videos. You can play the Point of View video to review this concept before writing.
- Students will then “become explorers” and map a location of their own. Pick a location in your school, like your classroom, the playground or the library, and have students make a map of this location on page 3 of the worksheet. Remind them to include a legend, compass rose and scale, along with any landmarks that will help someone use the map to navigate.
- Have students cut out and label the circle on page 4 with their name and a landform or body of water, like “Molly’s Ocean” or “Elijah’s Mountain.” Each student should place his/her “landform or body of water” somewhere in the location and then label the spot on the map.
- Pair students up, and have them exchange maps with their partners. Each student will then use his/her partner’s map to navigate to the “landform or body of water.” If a pair finds that they’ve marked the same spot on the map, have them switch partners. Students should pay careful attention to their routes and then go back and draw it in on the map they used.
- As a class, discuss: what was easy about using their partners’ maps? What was challenging? What do they think it was like for Magellan to explore oceans and places he had never been before?
Wrap Up/Extensions
- Ask students to volunteer to share their Magellan journal entries with the class.
- Discuss: how was Magellan’s journey important to our study of geography today?
Guided Reflection
- “I used to think _______, and now I think _______.”
- “One thing I learned is __________, and one question I still have is _________.”