[Sca-cooks] Grade school Spanish

[Stefan li Rous]

  Geertruyt Robertsdochter asked:
> Does anyone have any good suggestions for things I can talk about for 
> three
> 40 minute periods, so the kids get an idea about what Medieval spain 
> was
> like?  I've go so many ideas about so many things that I'm having
> problems
> focusing on three main "big idea" subjects.  Remember, I'm teachig
> 6th, 7th and 8th grade, so these need to be basic.

Perhaps 1) Religion 2) Food and 3) Clothing

1) I think someone else's idea of highlighting the three major 
religions of Spain, Moslem, Christian and Jewish. All had major effects 
there and the interactions are examples of both conflict and working 
together. You might also throw the Rom (Gypsies) into this, since they 
had a major influence on Spanish dance and probably other cultural 
areas.

2) Food is daily item that the kids might be able to relate to. Also, 
for a while Spain had some unique foods because of its New World 
connections. If you need examples for this, I can give you a number of 
Florilegium files. Even leaving out the New World foods, I suspect 
there are some unique to the area and may have mixed across cultures. 
Eggplants for instance, come to mind.

3) Clothing. Again because of its importance to daily life. I'm not 
sure what is unique about medieval Spanish clothing myself.

You could also use the New World connections and pirates and gold. 
Although as mentioned, you may consider any New World connections to be 
too far out of the medieval period for what you want to do. But those 
elements might be something which would excite the interest of your 
students. Of course, so would the Spanish Inquisition and torture, but 
you may not want to go there.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****