Cinco De Mayo is a great way to expose preschoolers to the Mexican culture. The educational unit is one that will surely excite your class as activities celebrating the holiday will stimulate all their senses.
Cinco De Mayo is celebrated across the country as a way to celebrate Mexican culture and pride. What an awesome day to expose your preschoolers to a different culture. Here are some activities for all the centers of the classroom.
It is important to set the scene for the kids as they enter the classroom. Have some mariachi band music playing and decorate the room in the colors of the Mexican flag: red, white and green. You can also let the children make red, white and green chains to decorate the room with. Cut slips of red, white and green construction paper so the kids can glue in a circle.
Art Time
Making a piñata is fun for all ages. An easy way to make one is to take a small brown paper bag and fill it with candy and toys. Then take three to four pieces of bright color tissue paper and cut slits in the bottom. Glue the pieces to the bag. Then tape streamers to the bottom of the bag.
Let the kids fingerpaint with red, white and green. Allow older kids to paint a flag like Mexico's flag. Make sure you have one up for the kids to look at.
Mexican flowers are an easy craft for preschoolers three and up. Give each child 3-5 different colored squares of tissue paper and have them set the one on top of another. Fan fold and then wrap a twist tie around the middle of the fan folded paper. Have each child carefully open his flower by pulling the different colors of paper upwards or downwards to separate each layer.
Music time
Have the children make maracas. There are many different ways to do this. Take beans and place between two plates. Staple the plates together. Glue a craft stick to one side. Allow the kids to paint or decorate the plates how they like. A second method of making maracas is to put beans in a water balloon. Then blow up the balloon. Staple a craft stick to the end. Coat the balloon with papier mache. Then let the kids paint. Finally if you need to just buy some maracas, turn on some music and let the kids go.
Another way to use music is to sing a song in Spanish. This song is sung to 1 little, 2 little Indians:
Uno, dos, tres amigos.
Quatro, cinco, seis, amigos,
Siete, ocho, nueve amigos,
Diez amigos
Games
Toss beanbags into a sombrero is a fun game to play. You can also play "Hot Pepper" instead of "Hot Potato."
Homeliving
Allow the children to pretend to cook Mexican food. Get pretend tacos, chips, queso, etc. for your homeliving center. For fun one day, cook quesadillas with cheese and tortillas and serve the kids outdoors for a picnic.
Cut tortillas into triangles. Allow the kids to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the triangles. Bake in the oven for a tasty snack later.
A second snack the kids can make is a sombrero cookie. Take a sugar cookie, allow kids to put icing on a gumdrop and stick to the cookie.
Sensory Table
Fill the sensory table with hot chocolate mix. The smell alone will excite the children. Have the children practice stirring the mix and pretending to make hot chocolate. As they stir, recite: Bate, Bate, chocolate!
There are endless book titles that can expose preschoolers to the Mexican culture. Diego and Dora are of course the most popular. Preschoolers are like sponges so be sure to introduce them to some Spanish words as well such as si, por favor, adios, hola, coma estas, etc.
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