Vamos a España…
Spain is a pretty special country. It’s got delicious food, beautiful buildings and lots of unusual animals. Have you ever heard of an ibex? Or a lammageier?
Spain has a complicated history as well. It’s very, very close to Africa - in fact, Morocco is only about 13 km away from Spain! Spain has lots of African and Islamic influences because of this. We’ll learn more about that later…
This workbook is all about the culture, history and food of Spain - we’ve even got some recipes!
This workbook has 6 different activities.
SCROLL DOWN
Before you start…
You’ll need some printed worksheets to complete this workbook. Start by clicking the button below and printing out the sheets.
Get a grown up to help you if you need it.
MAKE SURE TO CHECK ‘FIT TO PAGE’ WHEN YOU PRINT
When you’ve printed out the worksheets and got a pen or pencil, then scroll down to the begin the activities.
Not sure how the workbook works? Click the button below…
Here’s a bigger map…
You can click on the navy circles to learn more - it might help you later!
First Questions
There are lots of interesting things to learn about Spain! Can you answer the questions in this quiz?
Remember, try not to guess but actually do some research to find out the answers - ask your parents, or look on the Internet to find the answers!
Activity 1: Spanish Painters
Lots of brilliant painters were from Spain. Some painters, like Picasso and Miro completely changed the history of painting.
Below are some illustrations of paintings by famous Spanish painters. Can you match the artist to the painting? Each painter had a very different style. You can use the clues below to help you work out which one is which.
If you’re not sure, try Googling these names and see if you see a similar style of paintings to the ones in the slideshow.
Pablo Picasso
Picasso invented a style of painting called Cubism. He used bright colours and strange shapes. He often made portraits with noses and eyes in weird positions.
Salvador Dalí
Dalí made very unusual paintings. He would often take everyday things and make them look strange - like elephants with really long legs, or household objects that were melting.
Joan Miró
Miró painted using lots of lines and coloured shapes. His style was abstract, which means he didn’t try to draw like real life, but used shapes and colours to make viewers feel things.
Diego Velázquez
Velázquez created realistic paintings, mostly of people. He made money by painting portraits of rich people or their children or their pets. This was a way to practice and get money at the same time.
It’s a slide show, so make sure to click the buttons on the sides to go through.
The answer that goes in the Answer Grid is the name of the author that matches the painting with the star next to it ⭐
It’s only the second name though!
Do you have a younger brother or sister?
Maybe they want to join in and help, but they’re a bit too young? We’ve made a Picasso colouring-in sheet for them so they can join in with the workbook!
Activity 2: Let’s travel around Spain
Spain is a lovely country - it’s very diverse which means there are lots of different types of regions. There are mountains and greenery in the north, dusty desert in the centre and beautiful beaches all along the coast. Even some islands! Hopefully we’ll visit them all…
You’re travelling through Spain. Follow the instructions below and draw the route on the map on page 3 of your workbooks.
The answer that goes in the Answer Grid is the city you end up in⭐
Let’s go!
YOU’LL NEED TO DO SOME RESEARCH TO COMPLETE THIS ACTIVITY - NOT ALL THE ANSWERS ARE ON THE MAP
Where are we going?
Start in the city that starts with the last letter of the alphabet
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
From here head north-ish. You’re going to see the Spanish Guggenheim Museum. The Guggenheim Museums are a chain of museums filled with beautiful modern art. There are 5 Guggenheim Museums in the world, but only 1 is in Spain. That’s your destination:
_ _ _ _ _ _
From there, you join the Camino de Santiago which is an ancient walking route across the top of Spain. It’s 500 miles long and people have been walking it for thousands of years. You walk the Camino to the end - where does the Camino de Santiago (or The Way of St James) finish?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ de _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Whew! The walk’s done! Now it’s time to get the bus to the capital city. What is it?
_ _ _ _ _ _
Madrid is pretty busy. You decide to leave the capital and go to the nearest city. What is it?
_ _ _ _ _ _
How about some time at the beach? Find a nice city by the beach. The third biggest city in Spain is probably a safe bet. What’s it called?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
From here, you decide to visit one of the Balearic Islands, except the sea crossing is very rough. It’s probably best to head to the biggest island, where you’ll feel the weather less. What is the biggest Balearic island?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Now you’re headed to Granada. Which port is best to go through, without going back the way you came?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Granada is filled with beautiful buildings. One is a beautiful palace which has an Arabic name. What is the most famous palace in Granada?
The A L _ _ _ _ _ _
It’s filled with gorgeous tiles and arches and surrounded by wonderful gardens. It also shows the Islamic influence in Spain, which we’ll learn a bit more about in the next activity.
From here, head almost directly west. This city is your final destination, what is it?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ⭐
Don’t forget to fill it into the Answer Grid on page 3 of your workbook!
How about an extra activity?
There are loads of famous buildings in Spain - some are quite unusual. They exist all across Spain, but can you work out which building is in which city?
Download the sheet below to cut out different stickers of famous Spanish buildings. Try to work out which building is which (from the list below), then stick them on the map on page 3 of your workbooks (or another map if you have one) where they belong.
The buildings are:
• Tower of Hercules • City Walls of Ávila • Lizard from Parc Güell • Hanging houses of Cuenca • Alcázar of Seville • Mezquita Mosque
Activity 3: Islam in Spain
Nowadays Spain is seen as part of Europe. But for a long time it was part of an Islamic empire, which stretched all the way to Iran. The rulers of this Empire (called the Umayyads) were Muslim and believed in the Koran, not the Bible. They arrived across the Straits of Gibraltar from Africa and quickly took over Spain.
The system they built in Spain was powerful and meant people there lived mostly in peace, able to do lots of trading and making money. This bit of the Umayyad empire in Spain was called al-Andalus. Nowadays one of the regions in southern Spain is called Andalucia.
Al-Andalus became a great place of learning, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together peacefully, learning from each other. Lots of new learning took place in the fields of:
trigonometry
astronomy
surgery
pharmacology
farming
People came from all around to learn, particularly in Cordoba which was the most important city in al-Andalus. Lots of beautiful buildings were built in the Islamic style - they’re still in Spain today, like the Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba.
Eventually the Christian kingdoms in the north became more powerful and gradually defeated the leaders of al-Andalus, pushing them out of Spain. But the Islamic influence on Spain still exists. Lots of Spanish food, words and buildings have Arabic or Islamic origins. It’s part of what makes Spain a special place.
Now, a wordsearch…
To figure out the answer to this activity, you’ll need to complete a wordsearch based on the article above. You can find a copy of the wordsearch on page 4 of your worksheets. Can you find all the words listed below in the wordsearch?
One of the words isn’t in the wordsearch. That’s the answer to this activity ⭐
Europe
Islamic
Umayyad
Africa
Gibraltar
al Andalus
peace
Andalucia
learning
trigonometry
surgery
farming
mosque
Cordoba
Christian
Koran
Bible
special
astronomy
Activity 4: La Guitarra
The guitar was probably invented in Spain, hundreds of years ago. It’s still a popular instrument, especially the flamenco style of guitar.
Flamenco guitar is often (but not always) played to accompany flamenco dancing. The guitar is played with very fast finger movements - so fast the music sometimes sounds like a waterfall!
Check out some flamenco guitar playing below.
Do you know how to play the guitar? You use your right hand to pluck or ‘strum’ the strings, while you use the fingers of your left hand to press down on the strings in different places, to change the note.
(You do it in reverse if you’re left handed!)
When you learn to play the guitar you start by learning chords - different left hand positions to make different sounds. These chords have names which are letters, like A, C, E or G. Some are minor chords like Em which means E Minor.
When the chords are written out they look a bit like this…
(Look at the picture on the right ➡️)
We’ve got a little guitar puzzle for you on pages 5 & 6 of your worksheets.
You need to use the letters from different chords to fill in the titles of different Spanish songs. Here are the chords you’ll need…
All the songs you’ve translated on your worksheets at the titles of songs by a famous Spanish singer - can you find out his name?
His surname is the answer that goes in the Answer Grid ⭐
¿Quieres aprender Español?
That means, ‘Do you want to learn Spanish?’
Spanish is a really fun language to learn. It’s quite easy to pronounce and you’ll probably already know a few of the words.
How about learning some words for animals in Spanish? Download and print this separate worksheet to make your own Spanish animal flashcards.
Work out which name goes with which animal, then cut them out and write them on the back. You can use them to practice with.
Activity 5: Spanish food
Spanish food is delicious! It’s got lots of Arabic influences which results in lots of tasty treats. Spanish people eat lots of fresh vegetables and fish is very common.
One famous food is tapas, which is a snack or a starter before a meal. Tapas consists of lots of little dishes, all different. Tapas might include some olives, patatas bravas - which are tasty fried potatoes, sliced Iberian ham on bread, or calamares - which is deep fried squid rings. There may be a Tapas restaurant nearby you. Ask a grown up and they might agree to take you there - it’s always best to ask the waiter or waitress what’s best to order. They often know the best foods!
The Clements family are on holiday in Madrid. They’re having dinner but the restaurant menu is only in Spanish.
Can you work out what each member of the family wants to eat? There are some clues on pages 7 & 8 of the worksheets.
Grab a piece of paper and write down what each person wants. Then answer the question with the star on page 8 ⭐
What would you order? You could ask your family too. Maybe take their order, like a waiter…
Want to try some Spanish recipes?
Lots of wonderful Spanish food is (quite!) easy to cook. Here are some recipes you can try, including a special one from Laura’s aunt who’s from Spain. We eat it every year on Christmas Eve.
Activity 6: Which province of Spain?
Spain is a big country and it’s very diverse - that means there’s lots of varieties between different parts. People in different places are very proud of their region - for example some people believe they are Catalan or Aragonese before they are Spanish.
These differences make Spain a fascinating country, with lots of different foods and traditions - even languages! Spain has 17 different regions, which you can see in the video below. Within those regions are provinces - there are 50 provinces in total!
Here’s a list of just a few of the provinces…
Asturias
Cadiz
Albacaete
Cantabria
Gipuzkoa
Girona
Huesca
Jaen
Las Palmas
Leon
Segovia
Tarragona
Valencia
Zaragoza
The Plaza de España in Spain is a beautiful, decorated square. The square has different areas dedicated to different provinces in Spain. Each province has a little section with a decoration of typical things from each province and a map of the province on the floor. These are made of tiles.
The decorations in the Plaza de España look a bit like this.
This activity has 4 parts. We’ll call them A, B, C & D. You can fill in the answers to the puzzle on page 9 of your workbook. There’s also space to write down the answers to each of the parts…
Parts A and B can be done on the webpage, but check out pages 10 and 11 for Parts C & D - you’ll need the worksheets to help you!
Part A
Here’s a map of a province in Spain. Can you work out which one it is?
Make sure to check out all the detail on the map…
Part B
These are tiles that show the name of the province. But they’ve gotten muddled up. Can you work out which province this is supposed to be?
Part C
On page 10 of your worksheets, there’s a mini puzzle with the name of a Spanish province on it. Can you rearrange the pieces to complete the puzzle and find the name?
You’ll need some scissors to cut up the pieces.
Here’s a clue - it starts with a G and finishes with an A, and the puzzle pieces make a rectangle.
Part D
Have you ever done a mosaic puzzle? Get your maths skills ready!
Look at page 11 of your workbook. There’s a grid of 96 squares. Each one has a sum in it. Take a coloured pencil and colour in the squares where the answer to the sum is 10. Leave all the other squares blank. When you’re finished, the coloured in squares will form the name of a Spanish province.
What is it? ⭐
Are you up for a physical challenge?
The Camino de Santiago is a route all along northern Spain, which people have been walking for hundreds of years. We’ve got a physical challenge to recreate some of the Camino, including badges!
Want to download the challenge? Just click below…
Congratulations!
You’ve reached the end. You should have 6 answers now. You can write them all in the Answer Grid to reveal the vertical word.
Have you heard of this before? There’s an explanation on the worksheet page
Do you want to check your answer?
Click the button below and type in your answer. If you’ve got it right, you’ll get a congratulations message. If nothing happens, check your answers and try again!