SPAIN
Hola, today we are going to talk about Spain. Spain is a peninsula in Europe that is right next door to Portugal and France.
Here are a few interesting facts about Spain:
v The language in Spain is Spanish
v The capital of Spain is Madrid
v The Peseta is the money used in Spain
v Spanish is the world’s second most widely-spoken language
v Football is the most popular sport in Spain
v In Spain they drive on the right side of the road
Christopher
Columbus, explorer from Spain.
It
is 1484, Christopher Columbus is before the king of Portugal again.
“Please,
your majesty, would you give me the money to sail west to find the east? I
believe I could find a better route if I went that way.”
“How
many times am I going to have to tell you?” the king asked. “If I’ve told you
once I’ve told you a hundred times. No! We Portuguese are trying to find an
eastward route to India. We cannot be
wasting money on your foolish ideas. Besides you
are asking way too much for yourself.”
So
Columbus left the king. He was feeling discouraged. No one, not even the king
would help him with this idea which he felt certain would work and be the
best. Suddenly a new thought came to
him.
“I
will move to Spain. Perhaps the king of
Spain will help me with my plan.”
******
“Why
do I keep trying to persuade King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to help me. Or
anyone for that matter. I’ve been asking
people for seven years and it’s doing no good. Even in France and England they don't want to help. I wish I could just do it myself
somehow but I will never have enough money. Oh well, I guess I’ll just ask
again. Perhaps Queen Isabella will approve the idea this time.” Columbus said to himself as he went to visit
the King and Queen again.
It
was the last time he would ask. On this day in April of 1492 the queen would
finally grant his request. The royal treasurer
had convinced Queen Isabella that she was missing a great opportunity and she
even offered to pawn her crown in order to get enough money. But she didn’t’
have to do that, the treasurer supplied most of the money.
******
Christopher
Columbus looked out at the ocean. Today
was the day, today he and his three ships, the Santa MarÃa, the Pinta, and the
Niña, would leave to find India from the West.
On
August 3, 1942 Columbus and the 90 men with him left Palos, Spain and headed to
the Canary Islands where they loaded provisions and made repairs.
******
“Come
on men, it’s time to get moving, today we are leaving San Sebastian,” Columbus
told the sailors. “We have everything we
need, let’s get going.”
After
all the time of trying to persuade people to go with his plan they were finally
leaving. On September 9 the last land
was sighted. For over three weeks they
sailed straight west, seeing nothing but water.
“Adelante!
Sail on!” Columbus cried to the men in the ships.
“Columbus,
we’ve been sailing three weeks and have see no land. We want to go back!”
“I
sailed to go to the Indies and I will continue until I find them, with the Lord’s
help.”
“We
are going to go back. We will put you
out and go home if you won’ take us.”
“Let’s
go three more days, if we don’t find any land by then we will go home,”
promised Columbus. The men agreed and so
they continued on.
Two
days later, early in the morning land was sighted by moonlight. Before noon on October 12 Columbus had landed
on the beach at Fernandez Bay and taken possession of a New World (this would
be discovered later) for Spain.
Imagine
how glad all the men were to be on land again.
Several years ago the homeschoolers and
students from the church school took a field trip to see the “Niña” and the
“Pinta”, replicas of Christopher Columbus’ ships. We who live in America can be
thankful that the queen of Spain agreed to send Christopher Columbus to find
the Indies so many years ago for now we have a wonderful land to live in.
___________________________________________________________________________________
How to make a “Spanish” clothespin doll.
This is the picture I’m looking off of
to make this dress. If you visited Spain
you might not actually see people who look like this.
What you’ll need:
a clothespin
scissors
hot glue gun and hot glue
wax paper
needles
ruler
brown paint
paint brush
orange and blue fabric
dark blue friendship thread
blue thread
teal and white fabric
white thread
dark purple fabric (not pictured)
light green friendship thread
Flowered fabric
brown friendship thread
Optional Item:
wood (for
arms)
We’ll
start with the hair like usual. Cover the back of her head with hair and when
it is dry add a “braid” across the front. Last add the ponytail to the back.
Use wax paper to help hold the shape.
When all the hair is dry paint it brown.
Now
we’ll make the skirt. Cut a piece of
orange 4”x 2 ½” , a blue strip 4”x3/8”, and two pieces of blue friendship
thread that are 4”.
Melt
the edge of all the pieces.
Using
blue thread sew one side of the blue strip and one piece of friendship thread
about ¼” from the bottom of the skirt. Then do the other side of the strip in
the same way.
Cut
a white piece 2 ¼”x ½” and a teal piece 2 ¼”x 7/8”
Melt
the edges.
Sew
the two pieces together and use hot glue to make the seam turn down. Next put
gathers in the skirt and sew the bodice to the skirt. Use hot glue to make the
seam turned up.
Sew
the back seam and then flip the dress inside out and put the dress on.
Now
we’ll make the apron. Cut a dark purple
piece 1” wide at the top and getting wider toward the bottom x 2” tall. Also cut a belt 1/4” x 2 ½”.
Melt
the edges of each piece. Make French knots on the skirt so that they are sort
of in the shape of flowers. Check out my
post about Germany to learn how to make a French knot.
Put
gathers in the top of the apron to make it about ¾” wide and then hot glue the
belt onto it. Hot glue the belt together
behind her back.
This
part is optional. Cut two arms: one straight and the other bent at the “elbow”.
Sand them so that they are fairly thin.
Cut
out two sleeves 1 ½” x 1 ¼” with the top curved.
Fold
the sleeve in half and sew together the long sides then gather the top and pull
tight.
Put
some hot glue on the end of the arm and insert it into the sleeve. Make a
gathering stitch about an eighth inch from the edge and pull it tight, tucking
the edge up inside as you go. Fix the sleeve so that it hangs right.
Glue
the arms onto the sides of your doll.
We
will make the shawl next. Cut a square 2
¾”x 2 ¾”. Fold it in half to make a triangle and then hem the edges in.
When
that is done wrap the shawl around your dolls shoulders and tack the two points
together. (see the
picture)
The
back will probably be pretty loose at the top so you can use some orange
thread(or whatever color you’d like) to make it a little tighter around the
back of her neck by making pleats.
Another
thing that is optional is the necklace.
This was a very simple thing done by making knots in a piece of brown
friendship thread. To make the bigger
knot for the front I just made several knots on top of each other.
Hot
glue the necklace in the back under her hair and now your doll is done.
It
is time to find a good Spanish name for your doll. We chose the name Atalaya for our doll from
Spain.
Hasta
luego! Adios.
sources:
World Book Encyclopedia, 2000
Berry, Roger L. Neighbors in Latin
America. 2008: 112
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