European Explorers and Founders “ABC” Book
The idea is to learn as much as you can and place your research in the ABC book. ABC books will be completed in pairs. Since there
are 26 letters in the alphabet you will be responsible for 13 pages and your partner will have 13 pages; however, the grade is an
individual grade; the one page you will do together is the Pilgrims and you will decide who does what. Below is a list of European
explorers/ founders and your job is to come up with as many interesting and historically accurate facts for them. You do not have to
do the usual “ABC” book in the literal sense. For instance, if you find something in your research and the word “Aztec” is more
appropriate to use as your first page for the letter ‘a’ use that as an opener for “Cortez”. Or for that matter you could use the ‘z’ in
“CorteZ” for that ‘z’ page. Understand? What I want you to do is have fun researching and finding as much as you can about what
happened as a result of European explorers coming to America. Your ABC book then will be a compilation of the explorers and the
effect they had on American History. The ABC book rubric is provided and your 13 pages are worth 52 points. The Pilgrims will be an
additional 3 points for a total of 55 points. You will have 5 school days and the weekend to complete this work.
Here is the list of explorers/ founders who must show up in your book:
Columbus
John Cabot
Amerigo Vespucci
Vasco Da Gama
Vasco de Balboa
Ponce de Leon
Ferdinand Magellan
Hernando Cortez
Verrazano
Cabeza de Vaca
Francisco Pizarro
Jacques Cartier
Hernando De Soto
Coronado
Tristan De Luna
Pedro Menendez
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Walter Raleigh
The Pilgrims
Other topics that could show up in your book:
Asia
Caravel
Slavery
African Diaspora
Middle passage
Columbian Exchange
Mercantilism
On each explorer page, you must include the following information:
The country funding the exploration
The year
The geographic area they explored
The purpose for their exploration (land, gold, spread of religion)
On the other pages, you must include the following information:
The effect on the people they met
Was their conflict between the indigenous people and the explorers?
What did they bring back to their home countries? (Food, gold, claim to land)
These pages should be the “BIG IDEAS”
Example:
“A” for “Asia” since they were looking for an all water route to Asia (remember spices and silk and a
share of the wealth). Look for the overall effect of these voyages and HOW they changed world history as
well as American History.
****You may not use all the letters in the alphabet and that is okay. You may double up on some letters of the alphabet and that is also okay.
ABC BOOK
RUBRIC
Excellent
10-9
Good
8
Cover Page:
*Title
*Author
*Artwork
Cover page
includes all
three
elements
Cover
page has
two of
three
elements
Most
pages
have the
identifie
d
elements
Cover page
has one of
the three
elements
Many pages
include two
elements
and with
some
missing
Many pages
have
elements
missing
Most
pages
have
identifie
d sources
Some pages
show
sources; few
missing
Many pages
missing
sources used
in the book
26 alphabet Every page
pages:
includes
*9 explorers the
*Pilgrims
identified
(makes 14
elements
pages) = 3
points
*Facts
*Illustrations
Sources
All pages
Cited:
show
*include
where
website/ or
informatio
textbook
n was
pages from
found
C. A. or
Hakim
Total_______/ 55 Points
Satisfactory
7
Needs
Improvement
6
Cover pages
does not have
the three
elements
Student’s
Assessment
Teacher’s
Assessment