Explorer Book

Explorers!
Our Social Studies text only has one lesson to discuss the explorers, and that just wasn't good enough for me. So, instead my class does a little (big) book for their writing assignment throughout the week. 
We learn about Juan Cabrillo, Francis Drake, and Sabastian Vizcaino.
I gave them a 3 column sheet and we use Wikipedia to gather notes about them. After they write down facts, they are then in charge of writing a paragraph about each explorer. They then have to write an introductory and conclusion paragraph using these questions.
Introductory Paragraph - What challenges did the explorers face?(Information from our S.S. text)
Conclusion Paragraph - How would life be different if the explorers had not discovered CA?(More their own wonderings)
When they aren't writing, we complete guided draws of the explorers' portraits and create a map of the routes they took.  I love guided draws because it works on those important "following directions" skills.  Plus it's fun.
So, when it is all put together the book looks like this.

Cover
Introductory Paragraph
Cabrillo Portrait

Cabrillo Paragraph
Drake Portrait

Drake Paragraph
Vizcaino Portrait

Vizcaino Paragraph
Conclusion Paragraph
Routes map

Notes Page

Yes, a 10 page booklet.  They look great!
I'm linking up with Amanda's Friday Flashback!