Spain (& Diving Bell Experiment)

I have actually been kind of burned out on studying countries and although I really want to continue, I haven't been able to make myself. A couple of weeks ago, I requested books from our library about Spain since my brother was going there for work. Well, yesterday I almost returned them all. I just didn't think I could do it. But yesterday we finished the butterfly lapbook so we were out of "special projects." I decided to pull out a few of the books.

We read "Look What Came from Spain" and "The Story of Ferdinand." And, we had fun! :-)

In the first book, they talk about how a Spaniard invented the Diving Bell. Well, we did an impromptu "diving bell" experiment! We took a cup & stuffed a paper towel in it and the placed it in a sink of water upside down. The towel stayed dry because of the air in the glass! So, a person could go down in a "bell" and breathe for awhile.

Then, we read about bull fighting. We took turns being a matador and a bull and had bull fights. We also discussed weather bull fighters are mean or not. When we read "Ferdinand", we were glad that he got to go home to smell the flowers!

Last week we also read 2 books about Don Quixote. This was both for Spain and because we're going to go see the ballet in 2 more weeks. I wouldn't really recommend either book, but it did give us a good background. And, we checked out the CD of the music from the ballet and listened to part of it.

Resources:

• The Beautiful Butterfly: A Folktale from Spain by Judy Sierra - cute story about a butterfly looking for a husband & then what happens when he was eaten by a fish - this one has a happy ending unlike other versions of this story
• Look What Came from Spain - this book is why we did the diving bell experiment and played bull & matador - great series
• The Story of Ferdinand - about a bull who likes to smell flowers - happy ending
• The Most Magnifecent Mosque by Ann Tungman - story about how people from 3 different "religions" lived peacefully side by side