Using the weather map, find the states that were covered by the early Spanish explorers. Write a paragraph of the highlights from each state. A look at any map of the United States shows the long period of Spanish rule and its mark on hundreds of places. We have so many names of cities and towns that are adopted into English from Spanish.
Some state names are purely Spanish.
Some think this is because the Spaniards thought the local natives had big ears, but there are other theories, too. Three states have names that are Spanish adaptations of American Indian words. Finally, sprinkled all across the United States are Spanish place names in every state in the union, including the names of towns, mountains, bodies of water and other geographic phenomena. San Francisco, Las Vegas, El Paso and San Antonio are just a few of the big cities with Spanish names.