Conquistador Scavenger Hunt

As a homeschool family, we try to find, or create, fun/interactive learning experiences.  Recently we had some fun.  We wanted to teach our kids about Spanish Conquistadors.  Now, to be fair, I'm not sure how perfectly accurate we got everything.  But we did our best.

We put together a Scavenger Hunt, with 16 slips of paper.  Each paper taught a little something about the Conquistadors.  I then wrote on the back of each slip, a clue for where the next paper was hidden in the house.  The last few slips were hidden downstairs, where my wife had done her magic.

My wife went downstairs to dress things up to look like a forest.   Using colored paper, cardboard, streamers, and some tape.  And a week before that, we did a paper mache activity, where me made Conquistador helmets.  See our scavenger hunt learning snippets below.

CONQUISTADOR SCAVENGER HUNT

1. Long ago, people only knew the land they lived on.  Many explorers traveled to find land and create maps.  In Europe, such as Spain, the land met the sea.  Some thought if you travel by boat around the world, you would find the other side of that continent, India. 

2. The Spanish word for Conqueror is Conquistador.  To conquer is to take over, take ownership, to steal and plunder.

3. One of the first trips was from Christopher Columbus in 1492 where he discovered the Americas (South America) and some of the people who lived there. There is a misconception taught that he founded this country we are in and that is FALSE, he was also not that nice of a guy. His goal was to make himself and the king of Spain rich and himself rich.

4. Christopher Columbus thought that he had traveled around the world.  He thought he had gone all around the world and found the country India.  So he called the natives Indians.  This is why Native Americans were called Indians for so long.

5. Some explorers brought christianity, religion to the natives. They thought that the native cultures and beliefs were wicked and evil.  So they felt that they had to teach the natives to change.

6. Every person carries disease and sickness, though their bodies might be immune.  But for these native civilizations, they had never seen these illnesses before. These illnesses, many of which were minor to the conquistadors, spread to the natives making many ill and completely wiped out certain civilizations.

7. Some of these conquistadors were world explorers, looking for new lands for the empire.  If they found new land that could be claimed for the kingdom, they could become important and rule themselves.

8. Many conquistadors discovered native people and cultures.  They took advantage of many of these native people.  They stole a lot of gold and silver.  

9. Some of these native cultures wore gold, and had it in their lands, etc. Legends of gold and wealth traveled around the world, where other conquistadors became interested and wanted to find gold themselves.

10. Many conquistadors went looking for legends of treasure for themselves.  They got investors to pay for their boats and explorations, so they could bring back gold and silver.

11. Many conquistadors fought the native people to obtain power and riches.  The conquistadors had metal armor and metal swords, things the natives had never seen.  The natives had no chance to fight the conquistadors and win.

12. One conquistador, Hernan Cortez, conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico in 1521, one of the oldest and largest empires in South America.  As a result, the Aztec’s are no more.  Archeologists are still discovering and learning about this ancient empire that was destroyed and lost.

13. Another conquistador Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire, another great empire in Peru (the empire featured in the movieEmperor’s New Groove) in 1533.  The Inca Empire is in ruins, with Archeologists discovering and learning similar to the Aztec.

14. There were other conquistadors looking for other legends and stories like the fountain of youth and the garden of eden.

15. Many conquistadors fought each other for power and status and they did it a lot.

16. While we can debate whether they were good people or not, they clearly had a strong influence on South America and is one of the huge reasons why most of those countries speak Spanish, and their original native languages are forgotten.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

1. Not all Conquistadors were Spanish

2. Their armor made them nearly unbeatable

3. The treasures they found were unimaginable such as gold dust, masks, jewelry, etc.

4. Some didn't get much gold

5. They fought each other a lot

6. They believed fantasies such as the Garden of Eden, and saw women warriors on the waters of the Amazon

7. The Latin Americas don't really care for them

ROLES

We were going to go even further to give our children roles.  In the end, we didn't have enough time or mental capacity to get that much accomplished.  But maybe that's something you could do.  Here are some ideas of roles you could do.

Child 1: A Healer (Gather plants, herbs, etc.  Tend to those who get sick.)

Child 2: A Protector (Has tools: rope, sword, gun, etc.  Role and ability to protect others.)

Child 3: Cartographer (Has a map.  Role of knowing the area.  Acts as a guide, avoiding disasters or getting lost.)

Child 4: A Native (A native going from A to Z. Knowing the are secrets.)

MORAL LESSON

Is it wrong to seek after riches, and fantasy-like things? (answer- no)

Where did these power hungry explorers go wrong? (answer- they were willing to eliminate anything in their way–valued that gold, riches, fountain of youth, land over the lives of those that were already there)

Do you think these conquistadors were satisfied with what they received?

Did they lead happy lives?

Why do you think they did or didn’t?

IMAGE FOR REFERENCE

This image is likely what the world looked like to the people before the first Conquistadors traveled to the Americas.