W is for Wapiti

There are basically no words in Spanish that start with W.  The search for a W letter craft led to a discovery of vocabulary unknown by me or my hubby!  Wapiti, the Shawnee or Cree, name for the animal we common call elk also go by this name for Spanish-speakers in the know.  Ironically the reason we call them elk is because Europeans thought they resembled the moose and whenever hubby and I discussed possible Spanish terms for elk, all he or his family could come up with was "arce", the Spanish name for moose.  Since they only live in Northern America and eastern Asia, it isn't surprising my South American hubby didn't know the name for them.

The letter incorporation into this craft is maybe a little more iffy than some of our other alphabet crafts.  I decided to make the horns into a W, but I made it a lopsided W with a little extra spike so it looked more like elk horns.

Chiquita manned the glue and assembled our Wapiti.  She thought it looked more like a reindeer and laughed at me when I tried to convince her it was different.  I brought up pictures of elk on the internet and talked a little about where they live and what make them different, but maybe this year we need to take a trip up to Hardware Ranch and visit a Rocky Mountain elk herd in person.

Chiquita insisted on the huge googly eye.  I pointed out that the elk in the pictures had little eyes.  She did not care.  Artistic liberty, right?