May 13, 2019 by ppearls No CommentsLesson Plans

An Exploration of Mexico

It is one of the most misunderstood “holidays” in the United States: Cinco de Mayo. The actual reason behind the holiday is to celebrate the Battle of Puebla, a victory against the French. However, modern marketing has turned Cinco de Mayo into a St. Patrick’s day of sorts. Just like everyone wants green beer in March, the same people want to celebrate “Mexican” heritage in May. I put “Mexican” in quotations on purpose. Most of these celebrations appropriate customs, costumes, and ideas in ways that are incorrect at best, and offensive at worst.

That is not what I aim to do.

My husband is Cuban. This makes my daughter, Victoria, half Hispanic. Yes, Cuba and Mexico are different countries. However, I wanted to take this opportunity for Vicky to explore a Hispanic culture, albeit a different one than her own. We live in a predominately Caucasian town, in a predominately Caucasian state. I can’t let geography limit her life experience. So, long story short, I decided to do a deep dive into Mexico. Now granted, Victoria is not yet two. Explaining the politics between Mexico and the US will need to be saved for a later date. Discussing the difference between Mexican food and Tex-Mex food will have to be shelved. Yet, I have a lowkey love for Frida Kahlo. This is what I based most of our activities on. We examined Frida’s painting up close. We tried to do our own self-portraits. We also got up close and personal with the Mexican flag and danced to Cuban music. Read on to see more.

Note: If I get the facts wrong or something in my words or presentation is unintentionally offensive, please bring it to my attention via email at piedmontpearls@outlook.com. We cannot improve what we do not know.

Supplies Needed

Contando con Frida
rice
vinegar
food dye
cardstock paper
art print (you can always print this out on your printer too!)
maracas and castanets (optional)

The Plan

Reading: Contando con Frida

Nursery Rhyme/Song: “It’s Cinco de Mayo Day” was a cute little song that I found on the Childfun website:

It’s Cinco de Mayo Day
(sung to “The Farmer and the Dell”)
It’s Cinco de Mayo Day!
It’s Cinco de Mayo Day!
Let’s clap our hands and sing “Ole.”
It’s Cinco de Mayo today!

Words: We worked on a lot of our Spanish words this week. We especially focused on “hola”, “adios”,and “mira”.

Visual Aid: Okay, this one I have a bit of an advantage. I am a huge fan of Frida Kahlo. Naturally, I have a lot of her prints lying around, as well as several books. I took several that I had found in storage and affixed them to the back of our front door. I know most people don’t have random Frida work lying around, so here is a good substitute. The print that is linked is also one of the more kid-friendly pieces in Frida’s collection. Not all of them are kid-friendly, so I encourage you to view a piece before you buy it.

Sensory Play: Oh. Em. Gee! Remember the green rice that got a lot of play during St. Patricks Day and The Hungry Caterpillar? I took that rice, as well, as some plain rice. Then I repeated the same process I had done before and made a batch of red rice. The great part of the recipe is that the color is really vibrant. I was concerned that the red would mix with the beige of the rice and I would end up with some weird pink monstrosity. But no, science prevailed and I had red rice.

I grabbed my green, red, and technically beige rice, and assembled the Mexican flag! I printed out a card-stock version of the seal of the flag, as well as some flashcards about Mexican culture. I placed the flashcards and some sensory bin tools in the other side of my Flisat and waited for Vicky to notice.

It was immediate. She could barely finish breakfast. She was captivated by the beautiful Mexican flag in the corner of our living room. In retrospect, I should have kept it hidden until she was done eating, but what can I say? I was excited too!

The flag setup only lasted so long. In the end, our Mexican flag rice became Christmas themed rice for the end of the year!

Geography Study: I pulled down our rarely used globe and spent a little bit of each morning pointing out where Mexico was on the globe. I showed her where we were and let her handle the globe a bit. To be honest, I am a bit nervous about her handling it, but I need to get over that. My fondest memories are of looking at a beautiful globe with my grandfather.

Gross Motor: This was an activity more centered on Cuba than Mexico. My husband and I had visited Havana, Cuba a few years ago. We had bought several maracas and castanets. After her naps, I played some salsa and bachata on Youtube and we had a dance party. For the uninitiated, I highly recommend Celia Cruz. Azucar!

Sidenote: You do not need the musical instruments to appreciate any type of music in this activity. Merely having it on in the home will be exposing your child to a whole new world!

Art: To piggy back on our Frida Kahlo theme, I found these printables, and had Vicky draw a self-portrait. Frida was very skilled at portraits and self-portraits specifically. This fit very well. Here is a few pictures of her artwork.