Facts About Vasco Nunez de Balboa for Kids

This excellent activity for elementary students features everything you need for a great lesson on Vasco Nunez de Balboa, his accomplishments, and his search for the Fountain of Youth!

Included in your download is a reading passage on Vasco Nunez de Balboa that is easy for students to understand while also covering all of the places he explored and why. Accompanying this is a set of Common Core-aligned reading comprehension questions for students to answer.

 An answer key is included with your download to make grading fast and easy! 

Age of Exploration Worksheets and Reading Passages

While researching content to make this famous explorers resource, we discovered that there are very few grade-level appropriate reading passages for students to use when learning about different world explorers. That’s why we’ve put together a series of reading passages and comprehension activities aligned specifically to the curriculum standards.

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

In addition to independent student work time, use this worksheet as an activity for:

• Guided reading groups
• Lesson warm-up
• Lesson wrap-up
• Fast finishers 
• Homework assignment
• Whole-class review (via smartboard)

For struggling readers, try the following:

• Provide read-aloud accommodations.
• Allow students to partner read the passage and complete the comprehension check together.
• Pre-teach the vocabulary words related to the passage before reading. 
• Build background before completing by viewing videos and images or discussing prior knowledge on the topic.

For fast finishers, enhance their learning by trying the following:

• Encourage students to read further and make a timeline of the significant events that occurred during Balboa’s travels.
• Have students read additional texts or watch videos about Vasco Nunez de Balboa.
• Encourage students to continue their exploration of history with informative writing prompts for third grade and up.

Easily Download & Print

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource. 

Because this resource includes an answer sheet, we recommend you print one copy of the entire file. Then, make photocopies of the blank worksheet for students to complete. 

To save paper, we suggest printing this 2-page worksheet double-sided.

Additionally, project the worksheet onto a screen and work through it as a class by having students record their answers in their notebooks. 

Get more worksheets to have handy!

This resource was created by Katy Blevins, a teacher in Georgia and Teach Starter Collaborator.