Land, River & Hispanic Settlements
Tierra, Río, y Asentamientos Hispanos

Mathematics

1. Measure the distance between Mexico City, Santa Fe and St. Louis on a world map. Translate proportions onto a scale model such as a chalk drawing or mural on a sidewalk or an earth drawing in the playground.

2. Calculate the time that it would take a person to walk, travel on horseback, drive a carreta, or cart, drive a car, fly in a airplane or fax a document between Mexico City and Santa Fe.

3. Describe the geometrical features of a traditional 19th century Hispanic community and farm layouts.

Science

1. Discuss the environmental relationships between river, land, animal, plant and human life.

2. Discuss the importance of rainfall in a climate such as that of the Río Grande.

3. Explore the geological features of the Río Grande and their origins: mountains, mesas, rivers,
   canyons, cliffs, the presence of marine fossils on mountain tops, etc.

4. Discuss how geographic barriers such as mountains, deserts, rivers and oceans contribute to the course of history serving either as barriers or passageways between peoples and cultures.

5. Discuss the changing of the seasons in an environment such as that of the Río Grande region of New Mexico and the kinds of activities that take place from season to season.

Language Arts

1. Describe what experiences one might have on a journey from Mexico City to Santa Fe or from St. Louis to Santa Fe during specific periods of U.S. history, or act these out.

2. Write a personal narrative or family history of an overland journey from any of these three points.

3. Produce a booklet illustrating all of the special landforms of the region of the Río Grande and label them using both Spanish and English vocabularies.

4. Role play the first meeting of the Pueblo people with the Spanish in the 1500s.

Social Studies

1. Write a history of your town or community.

2. Have students reflect on their family history. Produce a family tree.

3. Learn about the ethnic origin of family names. What are the students' countries of origin?

4. Build, draw or make murals of an ideal human and natural environment.

5. Study traditional villages in environments somewhere else in the world such as in the Himalayas, China, Turkey, etc. Create different models as comparisons.

6. Create a model environment of a school campus that maximizes learning possibilities.

Community Connections

1. Trace an acequia system or river bed in your community or state for much of its route and note how it is responsible for promoting greenery or farmland.

2. Keep a journal of newspaper articles relating to environmental issues that interest the students.

3. Create a book filled with drawings and brief descriptions that illustrate transportation, water (where wells and ponds are located) and sewage systems in the students' community.

4. Interview folk artists about their traditions, their relationships to their environment and how they use natural resources in the creation of folk art.

5. Visit a variety of environmental regions in the area. Discuss the natural landforms and resources that influence folk traditions.

6. Interview elders in the community about their memories of life when they were growing up. How does life compare today?