Cinco de Mayo Activities

Que felicidad! 

I know it's still April but Justin has already been running around the internet since the beginning of the month making sure that we all are aware that in just a few days

Year after year, it never gets old 😆

Thanks for the heads up, JT! That must mean that our next seasonal opportunity for some more learning and FUN involves celebrating the rich culture of our neighbours to the south 🇲🇽

If you're looking for ways to share this holiday with your students, I've got some video, read aloud, and activity suggestions for you!

  INFORMATIONAL VIDEOS  

A quick search on YouTube will give you tons of clip options to introduce Cinco de Mayo to your students. To save you some time, here are my two favourite:

This one is perfect for Primary. It's simple and PACKED with fun and informative facts (which come in handy for the flag activity below!). 

This next one is a bit more in-depth in explaining WHY Cinco de Mayo is celebrated. It also includes fun facts at the end. I would recommend this one more for Junior grades.

  READ ALOUDS  

The concept of why Mexican people celebrate Cinco de Mayo can be a challenging thing to grasp, so Cinco de Mouse-O! is a great option for the littlest learners.

Younger students can experience what a traditional celebration is like without the sometimes confusing addition of battles and historical people. If you can't find a physical copy of this book, you can watch the read aloud HERE.

A great read aloud for younger students is Celebrating Cinco de Mayo: Fiesta Time!

It does share about the WHY behind the holiday but focuses more on HOW Cinco de Mayo is celebrated. If you can't find a physical copy of this book, you can watch the read aloud HERE.

  ACTIVITIES  

papel picado

Besides having your own lively classroom celebration (perhaps including chips & salsa, dancing to the Mexican Hat Dance, and decorating with colourful papel picado!), students can get crafty by making their own paper fans:

I LOVE these beautiful watercolour fans! You can whip out your paints or just keep it simple and have students use markers/crayons to decorate their own piece of paper to then fold into a fan. Then turn up the mariachi music and have a fan dance party!

Next up, students will have so much fun creating and working through their own Mexican flag activity book!

You can get the FLAG BOOKLET here.

And who doesn't love a guided drawing?! 

This is my favourite little guy to draw with students:

Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo with your students? 

What are some of your favourite activities?