Cinco De Mayo Lesson Plans

Cinco De Mayo is celebrated on the 5th of May and celebrates Mexico's independance from France. The following ideas and resources can help you build your lesson plans to teach the history behind the celebration and enjoy celebrations of your own.

For any age you can provide chips and salsa to snack on while the children work on the activities. This snack is traditional food for the celebrations.

This is a printable poem sheet that can be used with elementary students. Print this and allow them to use this as a writing excerise. Additionally you can print the next page to use for writing and language development as well. They can color the top half and then there are lines provided for them to write a story about Cinco De Mayo.

Make a jumping bean painting. Give each child heavy white paper for the background. Supply paint and small Dixie cups to pour the paint in. Dip the beans and throw them in a shoebox and let the children shake their beans. When beans are dry they can be glued to the paper to make a picture as well.

Make an easy piñata with a brown grocery bag. Decorate the piñata and stuff it with treats and tie it closed. Suspend it from the ceiling or a tree outside and let the children take turns hitting it until it breaks.

Use this great list of Spanish beginner words to teach your students Spanish. Play with the words as flashcards. Use them to tell stories.

For older students the History channel has created an excellent resource for lesson plans. Print this story and have each child read it and answer the following questions. It teaches the history of Cinco De Mayo and offers questions to help the students retain the knowledge. It is also accompanied by beautiful illustrations.

You can also hold a Mexican fiesta in your classroom. This is a good way to celebrate Cinco De Mayo and participate in an event that celebrates the Spanish heritage. Let the children help plan the fun event by asking them what they think should be included in the fiesta. Have each child bring something such as chips or salsa, pineapple juice, candy to stuff in a piñata, ribbons and streamers to hang around the classroom. This would be a fun way to celebrate the day, if you have done any of the writing activities earlier in the week these can be displayed and hung with colorful construction paper backgrounds around the room.