Celebrate the discovery of the New World with these Columbus Day themed activity worksheets.

What is Columbus Day? There are so many celebrations and holidays that are celebrated throughout the year. Every holiday has its own significance and reason. Some days are a way to honor people who played a pivotal role in history; other dates are important because they are religious in nature; some have cultural significance and lots more reasons! Among all these holidays, a very important national holiday that is celebrated throughout the United States of America is the Columbus Day. Do you know what it is? Let's take a look! Every year, a national holiday is observed across many countries of the Americas, which is known as Columbus Day. Columbus Day is a celebration of the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas on the 12th of October 1492. Who was Columbus? Let's see! Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a faster route to the Far East, and that is when he stumbled upon the Americas! This is why every year, we celebrate Columbus Day.

These worksheets contain a number of different activities using a dedicated set of vocabulary words related to the Columbus Day celebration, including word search, fill in the blanks, scrambled words, word wall flash cards, acrostic poems, crossword puzzles, and more. The collection also includes six different packs of Bingo cards, which can be used during discussions of the topics. Last but not least, a KWHL (know, what, how, learn) diagram is included to help students pick a topic to explore in more depth. This holiday is generally observed on October 12th. The worksheets below will provided reading passages, puzzles and even geography work for your students. It is a nice collection of work for your students.



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Print Columbus Day Worksheets

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Reading Passage

Though we now know that there were people there long before he arrived, Christopher Columbus is credited for discovering the Americas in 1492.

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Questions

Which country wanted a faster trade route to Asia?

The Holiday

In 1492, Columbus set sail for the west, hoping to find a trade route to Asia. He too eighty-seven men on three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

Exploring Root Words

A root word is a word that can be used as the base to create new words. You make new words from a root word by adding letters to the front (prefixes) or back (suffixes) to the root word.

Word Search

Find the Columbus Day related words in the puzzle. Write each word you find on a line.

Crossword

Use the clues to complete the puzzle.

Proofreading

Eat in the paragraphs.

Counting Syllables

Circle the number of syllables for each word.

Geography

Match each description to the correct country.

What Is Your Opinion Writing

Some people want to do away with this day as a holiday because they feel it glorifies Columbus' poor treatment of the indigenous people that he encountered on his voyage.

His Ships

Trace the words. Color the ships.

Fill In

Write in the missing words from the passage.

Word Scramble

Get those words in the order you need.

Word Ladder

Find the words that connect the pair of words provided, changing only one letter per step.

Trivia

What do you know?

Acrostic Poem

In acrostic poems, the first letters of each line are aligned vertically to form a word. In most cases the word spelled by the first letters is the subject of the poem. Write an acrostic poem.

Alphabetic Order

Get these words in a single file: vessel, latitude, sailor, exploration, spices, scurvy, gold, ocean, exhaustion, route

Visual Crossword

We are looking for a country, a boat, a verb, a famous explorer, a boat captain, and a huge body of water.

Missing Letter

Shore up all the words.

Visual Addition

Add up all those vessels.

Visual Subtraction

A vital tool for finding land.

Word Chop

Help the Captain make sense of all those word pieces.

Word Scramble

Unscramble the letters of the related words.

Word Search

Exhaustion is a huge factor to all the explorers.

The Man

Write an acrostic poem on the famous explorers.

Explorer

Write a poem for those who are always looking for more.

Sailor

The minions of the sea that make vessels go and go.

Bingo Card #1

ocean, exploration, Spain, exhaustion, Portugal, west, vessel, Indies, navigate, Discover, Santa Maria

Bingo Card #2

gold, Pinta Nina, latitude, east, route, compass, sailor, ship, spices, October, scurvy, courage

Bingo Card #3

No one really talks about how weather really shaped history.

Bingo Card #4

This card is kinda like a long ship ride. Really easy in the beginning and end.

Bingo Card #5

Almost the very end.

Bingo Card #6

Definitely lock it up.

KWL

We really don't know as much about this explorer as we think we do.

Maze

Help the explorer find and navigate to his ship.

Word Wall

Eight pages to work with.