Teachers:• Print off the following page for each student. Students will write 10 facts in the Take 10 section that they learned while discussing the notes.

• After the discussion, the students will walk around the room and share their facts with each other. They should write down 5 NEW facts in the Get 5 section.

Take Ten Get Five

Columbian Exchange

• When explorers created contacted between

Europe & the Americas, the interaction with Native Americans led to BIG cultural changes.

•The Columbian Exchange is the exchange of physical elements such as, plants, animals, diseases, and weapons.

Animals

• During this time period, the ONLY domesticated

animals in the Americas were…LLAMAS!

•European explorers brought horses, pigs, cattle, & sheep.

•This completely changed the way that the land was used!

Plants

• With all of these new farm animals, it was

time to start planting crops.

• Europeans brought cash crops to the Americas: sugar, rice, wheat, coffee, bananas, & grapes.

•These new crops flourished in the Americas.

Plants

• Europeans find crops in the Americas:•Maize (corn), tomatoes, tobacco, cacao (chocolate), beans, and cotton.

• They bring these plants back to Europe, where they are very popular.

•Think—Italian spaghetti…What if they never had tomatoes?

Diseases

• Europeans (unknowingly) brought over diseases that the natives weren’t immune to. These diseases spread by air & touch.

• Smallpox, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, chickenpox, bubonic plague, scarlet fever, & influenza were the most common.

Old World (Europe, Asia, & Africa)

Contribution New World (The Americas)

Apples, bananas, citrus fruits, grapes, melons,

peaches, pears

Fruits Pineapples, tomatoes, papaya, strawberries

Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, onions, radishes

Vegetables Avocados, green beans, pumpkins squash

Barley, oats, rice, rye, wheat

Grains Maize (corn)

Black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger

Spices Chili peppers, vanilla

Coffee, tea Drinks Chocolate

Sugar cane, olives Other Plants Tobacco

Cattle, chickens, donkeys, goats, horses, pigs, sheep

Animals Guinea pigs, llamas, turkeys

Cholera, malaria, measles, mumps, small pox, typhoid,

yellow fever

Diseases Syphilis

Devastating Effects

Natives had no natural resistance to European diseases and the population dramatically decreased for decades.

• Inca empire decreased from 13 million to 2 million in 1600.• North American population fell from 2 million in 1492 to 500,000 in 1900.

Devastating Effects

• Europeans need labor to cultivate all the new crops in the Americas, but there weren’t many natives left because of diseases.

• Europeans look to Africa for labor and begin to steal Africans to work as slaves in the Americas.

Impact

• Different Foods & Animals•Over time, crops native to the Americas became staples in the diets of Europeans.•These foods provided nutrition, thus helping people live longer.

•Economics•Activities like cattle ranching and coffee growing were not possible before this time.

Effects Around the Globe

The Columbian Exchange not only impacted Europe & the Americas, but also…

•China: Arrival of easy-to-grow, nutritious corn helped the population grow tremendously.•Africa: Two native crops of Americas—corn & peanuts--among most widely grown today

Scholars estimate one-third of all food crops grown in the world are of American origin!

Let’s Review

1. What was the Columbian Exchange?2. What was the only domesticated animal in Latin America?3. Which animals did the Europeans bring to Latin America?4. What are some native crops that the Europeans brought back to

Europe?5. What did many natives die from?6. Why did diseases kill so many natives?7. Who did the Europeans get to work on plantations and in mines

when most of the native population had died?8. What is an example of a “traditional cuisine” that was created

after the Columbian Exchange?

Teachers• Print off the following graphic organizer for each student.

• Students should fill in the arrows (or write around them) with the plants, animals, diseases that were exchanged.

Teachers• Print off the cards on the following page (there are 2 per page).

• Project the “Who Am I?” statements and have the students hold up the correct end of the card.

• There is also a blank template for you to add additional questions if you’d like.

Who Am I?

I introduced the horse.

Who Am I?

I introduced tomatoes.

Who Am I?

I introduced cacao (chocolate).

Who Am I?

I introduced smallpox.

Who Am I?

I introduced weapons.

Who Am I?

I introduced potatoes.

Who Am I?

I introduced corn.

Who Am I?

Teachers:• Give each student markers and white paper—the larger, the better.

•The students will fold the paper into 8 sections, with the first section being the title slide.

•The students will color their thumbs with the washable markers to make the characters in the comic.

*I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures (examples). They were taken with my phone. I will take better ones this year, but we don’t study this until February!

Thumb-Print Comic

• We are going to create finger-print comic strips about the Columbian Exchange.

• You will need to have 8 different scenes that explain the Columbian Exchange.

• Check out some examples…

Columbian Exchange Comic Strips!

Teachers

• Give each student a copy of the graphic organizer pages (print front & back to save paper/ink). They will complete this organizer first, and then use it to create an I Am poem about the Columbian Exchange.

•(See Example at the end.)

I am(Two special

characteristics the

person or thing has)

I wonder(something the person

or thing could actually

be curious about)

I hear(an imaginary or actual

sound)

I see(an imaginary or actual

sight)

I want (a desire)

I am(the first line of the

poem is repeated)

First Stanza

I pretend(something the person or thing

could pretend to do)

I feel (an emotion)

I touch (an imaginary touch)

I worry((something that could actually

bother the person or thing)

I cry for(something that could make the

person or thing upset)

I am(the first line of the poem is

repeated)

Second Stanza

I understand(something the person or thing

knows to be true)

I say(something the person or thing

believes in)

I dream(something the person or thing

could actually dream about)

I try(something the person or thing

could make an effort to do)

I hope(something the person or thing

could hope for)

I am(the first line of the poem is

repeated)

Third Stanza

I Am… Poem

• Imagine that you are a Native American, European explorer, crop (potato, tomato, corn), horse, pig, disease, etc. that was impacted by the Columbian Exchange.

• Fill in the lines of the graphic organizer with information about yourself. •

•You may use the graphic organizer for brainstorming, but please write your final draft on a separate sheet of paper.•Please illustrate your poem.

I Am the HorseI am furry and brown.

I wonder if people notice the natives dying. I hear people groaning because of how bad they hurt.

I see yellow and purple spots on them.I want to be ridden, but I can’t.

I am furry and brown.

I pretend my owner isn’t sick and is riding me.I feel his presence on my back.I touch his hand with my nose.

I worry he might die from disease too.I cry for him.

I am furry and brown.

I understand that he’s dead now.I say to myself, “Don’t go”.

I dream he rides me one last time.I try to hear his voice.

I hope I’ll see him again one day.I am furry and brown.

TeachersThank you for downloading this file. I hope you enjoy using it with your students, and I can’t wait to

read your feedback in my TPT store!

For more social studies materials, please visit my store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Brain-Wrinkles

o I teach sixth grade Language Arts and Social Studies in Georgia, so all of my lessons follow

Common Core and Georgia Performance Standards.

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