2. participate in activities portraying both the explorers and Indians, enabling them to encounter from both sides.
2. Have the children look at pictures from various books showing Columbus's encounter with the Indians. Have them think about how the two groups reacted to each other (i.e., clothing, language, gifts). Have them dictate a chart of questions both sides must have had when they encountered each other for the first time. For example:
| Indians | Columbus & Men | |
|---|---|---|
| Why do they have so much clothing on? | Why do they wear so little clothing? | |
| Why are they wearing such funny | Why do they have gold rings | |
| things on their heads? | in their noses? |
From this generated list have the children speculate the answers and feelings of both sides. Have them role play the Indians discussing the explorers as well as the explorers discussing the Indians. Extend the discussion of this lesson to include what we should do when we encounter unknown people or things. What should we do? How should we act?
3. Have the children make a mural or diorama depicting the encounter of explorers and Indians.
4. Using books such as Piero Ventura's 1492 The Year of the New World , show pictures of the inhabitants of this so-called "New World." The American continents were populated with many different people with many different customs who lived in a wide variety of habitats. At this point some classes may want to learn more about other groups of Indians living in the Americas at this time.
5. With the encounter of two different worlds, both the West and East were introduced to many unfamiliar foods, plants, and animals. Share the list with the class.
| The Old World Brought to the New World | The New World Gave to the Old World | |
| horses | grey squirrel | |
| cattle | muskrat | |
| sheep | potatoes | |
| goats | tomatoes | |
| chicken | sugar | |
| pigs | ||
| wheat | ||
| barley | ||
| turnips | ||
| peas | ||
Have the children make collages depicting these items. Can they think of other things they read about that the explorers brought to the new world, such as guns, trinkets, etc?
6. Inform the students that when Columbus and his crew landed in America they had to use sign language to communicate with the Indians. Play a game of charades where they try to guess what the other person means. They should play the parts of both explorers and Indians.
7. The explorers planted a flag when they arrived on the island of San Salvador. Have the children pretend they are the Indians. What kind of flag would they have for their tribe? Have them design a flag and share the reason for their design. If they could communicate with Columbus and his men, how would they explain their flag's design.
8. Have the children talk about how the Indians felt when they were forced to make the return trip to Europe with Columbus's men. If these Indians could communicate in our language, what reasons would they give Columbus asking him to leave them with their tribe? What reasons might Columbus use to persuade them to sail to Spain? What might Columbus have done to encourage some Indians to return to Spain? (For example, he might have to earn their respect, ask for a whole family to return with him, etc.)
9. In our country Columbus Day was first celebrated in 1792 in New York City. This was the 300th anniversary of his landing. In 1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt made October 12 a legal holiday. Discuss how Indians might feel about celebrating this day. Why might they feel sad? Encourage children to pose questions and think about both (the Columbus and Indian) sides to this issue.