The little stuffed mouse Maisy is on a mission to travel around the globe and help us learn more about the world! (See more about this here: Maisy The Mouse Goes Traveling) So with his little laminated passport safely stashed in a toy backpack behind his shoulders, Maisy is joining our very kind neighbors on their family trip to Barcelona, Spain. And while we anxiously wait for them to to return, we trying to learn some fun facts about Spain in general and Barcelona in particular. These are the resources that we used to make learning fun:

1. European Bingo Game – free board game that we use as a fun way to learn more about Europe
2. Books:
   • The Rain In Spain—A Kid’s Guide To Barcelona, Spain by Penelope Dyan and John D. Weigand
   • Picasso (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia I love all Mike Venezia’s books and couldn’t wait to read this one with my son: they are so educational and fun!
   • Salvador Dali (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia my kids really liked this one.
   • Stories from Around the World by Heather Amery we love this collection of stories and fairy tale from Spain involved brothers, and dragons, and even a princess – it was really fun.

   These books we haven’t had a chance to read, but they surely looked interesting!

   • Diego Velazquez (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia
   • Barcelona, Tell Us About Gaudi (Spanish Edition) by Bernat Cormand
   • Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Spain by Virginia Haviland We haven’t found this one in our local library, so we read Spanish fairy tale from the —  book, that we already have are really love
   • Spain (Country Topics for Craft Projects) by Catherine Chambers, Rachel Wright and John Shackell
   • A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus (Picture Book Biography) by David A. Adler, John C. Wallner and Alexandra Wallner
   • My First Biography: Christopher Columbus by Marion Dane Bauer and Liz Goulet Dubois
   • Spain in Pictures (Visual Geography. Second Series) by Stacy Taus-Bolstad
3. DVD:
   • I don’t know any.  Recommendations are welcomed.
4. Toys:
   • We usually take a world puzzle, hear some fun facts on a talking globe and talking maps.  EducationalToysPlanet has a good selection of Geography toys: http://www.educationaltoysplanet.com/geography.html We also like the atlases they used to sell (their description is still quite useful http://www.educationaltoysplanet.com/jumbo-picture-world-atlas.html ), but now I found a similar one here: http://www.schoolbox.com/World-Discovery-Atlas.aspx?CategoryID=65
   • Face to Face Alex Beard Cubist Strategy Game This board game we got as a birthday gift and while this strategy game doesn’t directly correlate to Spain, it does look like a Picasso painting going wild all over the table.
   • 10 Days In Europe Game
     We actually own “10 days across Asia” and for Europe we use the game that I designed myself.  I found “10 days across Asia” absolutely fantastic, so I listed this title here anyway.
   • Nanoblock: Sites to See: Sagrada Familia
     Again, we don’t have it but I thought it would be an excellent activity  for this topic.
5. PPT:
   • Salvador Dali
   • Pablo Picasso, The Bull Series: from realistic to abstract.
   • Masterpieces by Picasso by Classical Mommy
   • El Greco 1 ^r (Thank you Isa for an English, Spanish and German presentation)
   • El Greco 2 ^r (Thank you Isa for an English, Spanish and German presentation!)
   • Baroque Art 2 (Thanks to A.P.P. for a fantastic work!) has Velázquez towards the end
   • http://countries.pppst.com/spain.html
6. Web:
   • Free downloadable pdf: Spanish Exploration in New Mexico
   • I love “Carmen” even though it is not a Spanish opera, and couldn’t resist showing some of my favorite opera singers perform key arias:
     Denyce Graves sings the Habanera from Carmen
     Dmitri Hvorostovsky “Votre Toast” Toreador Song Carmen : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB8y0bgPdCQ
   • National Geographic pictures/facts about countries: Spain
7. Hands On Experiments:
   • Spanish Travelers Routes: we used this travelers card set that I designed to learn more about Columbus.
   • Spanish Explorers Cards: these explorer cards were really useful and well designed.
   • Picasso craft: cut or buy foam geometric figures and make a picture out of it
   • La Tomatina Bean Bags for La Tomatina Food fight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina )
     is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, in which participants throw tomatoes at each other. It is held the last Wednesday in August, during the week of festivities of Buñol.
   • Craft: flamenco dancer http://www.makingfriends.com/world/clothespin_doll_spain.htm
   • Flag printables http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/spain_flag_printables.htm