A mysterious person named Jonathan is traveling to Spanish-speaking countries. He has begun sending postcards to Arlington of places he has visited and celebrations he has seen. Some Arlington students say they know Jonathan, but they can’t agree on what he looks like. Jonathan sometimes forgets to include important information in his descriptions of what he has seen. Because he is on the road so much, he sometimes forgets to even say exactly where he is!
The Task
Your job is to help fill in the missing information in this mystery. You should determine, for each postcard:
- What holiday or event is being described, and what is its name in Spanish and English? Find the names of three people or things associated with the holiday in Spanish.
- What country (if possible, what city) is the postcard from? Find it on a map.
- What are the origins of this celebration or holiday?
- Who celebrates the holiday? What do they do to celebrate?
- Does this celebration remind of you of any American holidays? If so, compare and contrast it to that holiday.
- Would you want to celebrate this holiday? What would you do if you were there?
You may use any resources in your classroom or library to answer these questions; however, your primary resource will be the Web.
The Process
Go through the postcards below.
- Look at the picture on the front of the postcard and read the letter on the back. Pay attention to when the postcard was written.
- Use clues from the picture and the letter to think about where the postcard might have come from.
- Follow the links below, and search on your own, to find answers to the above questions.
- Write up your results in Word, or create a Power Point presentation.
- After you have completed your Word Document or Power Point presentation answering each of the bullets above (under Task), Write Jonathan 4 postcards, in Spanish about 4 of your favorite (different) holidays. Inlclude a picture, dates/days, 4 activities that you do (in Spanish).
PRINT EVERYTHING OUT (YOUR WORD DOCUMENT OR POWERPOINT, AS WELL AS YOUR 4 POST CARDS) AND HAND THEM IN TO MS. BARRAGAN BY FRIDAY. IF YOU ARE NOT DONE, HAND IN WHAT YOU HAVE COMPLETED. THIS PROJECT COUNTS TOWARDS YOUR PARTICIPATION.
Las Tarjetas Postales:
Carta 1.pdf
Carta 2.pdf
Carta 3.pdf
Carta 4.pdf
Carta 5.pdf
Carta 6.pdf
Carta 7.pdf
Carta 8.pdf
For an overview of world holidays, try these sites:
www.californiamall.com/holidaytraditions/home.htm
For information on Mexico:
www.mexonline.com/holiday.htm
www.go2mexico.com/portraits/holidays
For information on Spain:
www.cyberspain.com/life/index.htm
www.sol.com
http://andalunet.com