The picture is a modern drawing showing a Spanish ship of the type used during the 1500s.  When sailors sighted birds, they knew they were approaching land.  The crosses on the sails should remind students that one goal of the Spanish was the spread of Christianity to the natives of the New World.

   Students should work from the finished map shown with the link from this section's main index page.  Emphasize neatness from the beginning!

   Ask students to mark the routes on the map very lightly with color pencils at first, so they can erase a mistake if necessary.  Do them in the order they actually took place - the dates are on the map, starting with Dias in 1487.
   Once students have the routes neatly placed on the map, they can go over the lines to darken the colors.
   Next, show the areas of colonization by Spain and Portugal in the New World.  The dotted lines will help guide students as they lightly shade the areas with the appropriate colors.  Be sure students complete the color key.

   The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans should be labeled in the workbook with a regular #2 pencil or an erasable blue ink pen.  Regular color pencils don't work very well for printing small letters, and mistakes made with regular ink can't be fixed.

   It is best not to color the seas, lakes, and oceans, so the colors of the routes of the explorers stand out.