Columbus Day Wheel - Children's Craft

Last night we made a Columbus Day wheel in honor of today's holiday, and to take on this weeks Unplugged Project theme of "wheel".

The children cut two identical circles, out of blue construction paper, and one slightly larger circle, out of card stock.

They also cut Eurasia, and the American continents from a printable map of Columbus' journey, we found at Enchanted Learning (you can print the map without an Enchanted Learning membership, just not the entire worksheet), and six little ships to represent the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, twice over.

I helped them trim the continents to fit the circles. On one blue circle, they glued the world as Columbus imagined it, without the American continents. On second blue circle, they placed Europe, and the Americas, on either side of the Pacific.

I cut an arch shaped opening in both circles, between the continents.

Then, we attached the circles together, with the continents facing out, and the card stock circle in the middle, with a brass fastener.

The children glued three of the ships into the arches, on each side of the card stock.

Finally, they wrote the poem, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue" on the wheel.

When the inner circle is turned...

...you can see the voyage Columbus thought he was making, on one side of the wheel...

...and the voyage he actually made, on the other.

It's great to be a homeschooler.