10 Fun Explorer Activities

Learning about explorers? Here’s a list of activities that would be perfect to add to your explorer curriculum.

EXPLORER JOURNAL

Every good explorer has a journal, right? Fleece Fun has a great free printable explorer journal, and there are several ways you could use it. Go on your own exploration adventure and write your thoughts and discoveries, use it as a diary to write down personal thoughts as if you were the explorer, or write down several different explorers and their main exploration.

VIDEOS

I don’t know about you, but I love including videos in my curriculum. I’m a visual learner myself and love to actually see things instead of just reading about them in a book. Here are a couple videos to check out.

PLOT YOUR NAVIGATION

What in the world did explorers do without maps or GPS? Adventures in Mommydom has a fun activity where kids can chart and graph their navigation through portolan navigation which uses the compass rose. So fun!

FUN GAME APP

Free Tech 4 Teachers shared a great app that puts kids in charge of exploring the “New World”. How fun would that be? It includes several different explorers to choose from along with their historical information, drawing expedition maps, and managing their finances so they don’t run out of money. I wish I had something like this when I was a kid!

PRINGLES CAN EXPLORERS

These are adorable! Have students decorate a Pringles can that looks like their explorer and write clues inside. White’s Workshop says that you can use this activity to present any social studies topic. They look like so much fun!

CAUSE & EFFECT GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

History is all about causes and effects, and it is important for students to realize how things are related and connected. Here is an example of a cause & effect graphic organizer that I created. Click HERE to download an empty PDF that you can use for this activity or for other topics as well.

GET A CLUE

I was introduced to this game when I taught 6th grade world cultures, and my students absolutely LOVED this game. It takes minimal preparation, and you can use it for any topic. Here’s how you play. To prepare the game you need to use PowerPoint or Google Slides and either write down the terms or put a picture of the terms on the slide. If you have 10 people or terms divide them into 2 different slides. For topics like explorers where students wouldn’t automatically know who each explorer is I would just write them down. Pair students up, with one student looking at the screen and one student with their back to the screen. Student A, who is looking at the screen, gives clues for one of the explorers until Student B guesses it correctly. Then Student A goes to the next explorer and repeats until all the explorers have been guessed. Then switch positions so now Student B gives the clues and Student A guesses. Here is my Get A Clue: Explorers on Google Slides that you can download and use in your classroom.

FOLDABLE

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE foldables. Especially when you don’t have to run to the copy machine to make any copies. You just use whatever paper you have, and you choose your expectations for the foldable.

SING IT!

You want your students to remember the different explorers? Watch and sing along with this song several days in a row, and they will remember them in no time!

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Want your students to do a research project on explorers? Then you might like my Explorers Research Project Posters. They are very student-friendly because they help guide students in what to research. No more “deer in the headlights” looks when you assign a research project!

I hope you were able to find a couple of activities for you to use in your classroom! I would love to hear if you have another activity to add!