Age of Exploration Timeline: Five Voyages That Changed the World

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Social Studies · World History
SP-WORLDH-006  ·  Free to print and use in your classroom  ·  substituteplans.com
Page 2
Age of Exploration Timeline: Five Voyages That
Changed the World
Social Studies · World History · Grades 9-10 · 50 minutes
Time needed
50 minutes (one class period)
Prep
Copy the 2-page worksheet (one per student). No other prep.
Technology
None. Calculators are optional for subtraction only.
Student
independence
High. Students work alone and check dates with a partner.
Copies to make
One 2-page worksheet per student
Materials
Pencils, Worksheet
Goal for today: Students will place five voyages of the Age of Exploration in order, calculate the years between
events, and explain one effect of these voyages on Indigenous peoples.
Before the bell
☐ Copy the worksheet, one per student (2 pages).
☐ Write on the board: Explorer = a person who travels to learn about or reach places new to their own society.
Note that these places were not new to the people already living there.
☐ Keep the answer key on your desk. The reading includes every date.
☐ Calculators are optional; the subtraction is simple.
Say this to start
Good morning! Today in world history you will read about five important voyages between 1405 and 1522. You will put
them on a timeline, work out how many years passed between events, and think about how these voyages affected
people in the places that ships reached. Use the reading for every date.


SubstitutePlans.com
Social Studies · World History
SP-WORLDH-006  ·  Free to print and use in your classroom  ·  substituteplans.com
Page 3
Run of show
Minutes
What you do
What students do
0–5
Take attendance the way the school requires. Hand out the
worksheet and read the board note about explorers aloud.
Settle in and take out a pencil.
5–15
Tell students to read the passage silently and circle every
year.
Read and circle years.
15–25
Tell students to complete the timeline in questions 1–5,
using the word bank of years.
Fill in each blank with a year.
25–35
Tell students to solve the date-math questions 6–8,
showing each subtraction in the work box.
Subtract to find the number of years
between events.
35–44
Tell students to answer multiple-choice questions 9–10 and
then write answers to questions 11–12.
Answer questions 9–12.
44–50
Read the timeline answers aloud from the key so students
can check. Then collect all worksheets and stack them for
the teacher.
Check answers and hand in the worksheet.
If things go wrong
• If students ask who “discovered” the Americas, remind them that millions of people already lived there; the
passage uses “reached” to describe the Europeans’ arrival.
• If students mix up the voyages, tell them to use the year circles from the reading and the word bank.
• If students ask why the Chinese voyages stopped, tell them the passage only says they ended in 1433 and
historians discuss several reasons.
• If students finish early, direct them to the early finisher list.
Early finishers
• Draw a quick timeline of the five voyages on the back, with one picture symbol for each.
• Write two sentences from the point of view of someone watching a European ship arrive on a coast for the
first time.
Support and challenge
• Support: Let students complete questions 1–8 with a partner and skip question 12.
• Challenge: Ask students to write a paragraph comparing the purposes of Zheng He’s voyages and Columbus’s
voyage, using the reading.


SubstitutePlans.com
Social Studies · World History
SP-WORLDH-006  ·  Free to print and use in your classroom  ·  substituteplans.com
Page 4
Notes for the teacher (you fill this in)
Jot a few lines before you leave. A full Daily Sub Report is in the free Sub Survival Kit at SubstitutePlans.com.
How far the class got / what to pick up next:
Students who were especially helpful:
Anything the teacher should know: