Hispanic Heritage Month Crafts: Festive Maraca Mosaics

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated each year from September 15 through October 15 in the United States. It is a time to celebrate the culture and contributions of Americans with Hispanic heritages. Crafts are a fun way to help children learn new vocabulary and try new art techniques while learning more about the Hispanic heritage of many Americans. For this fun Hispanic Heritage Month craft, we're going with the letter M. M is for music, mosaic and maracas.

Music is an important part of Latin American celebrations and maracas are a common instrument enjoyed in Latin American music. Mosaic is an art form that has been prevalent in Latin American countries. Here we will combine the mosaic technique with the composition of maracas in celebration of Hispanic Heritage month.

What is a mosaic?

Although for our Hispanic Heritage Month crafts we will be using common craft materials, students should know that mosaics have traditionally been created by combining small pieces of stone, glass, shells, tiles or metals together to create a picture or design.

Tip:

Turn arts and crafts time into a real fiesta by playing some Latin American music while you work.

Materials:

For our Hispanic Heritage Month mosaics we used the super easy and fun peel and stick foam sheets but colored paper or non-stick foam craft sheets and glue could work as well.

• Background paper
• Peel and stick foam sheets in black, red, yellow and green OR
• Paper or foam crafts sheets and glue
• Pencils
• Black markers
• Maracas or pictures of maracas

Directions:

For younger students you can sketch a still life of maracas, trace in bold black marker and copy for each student.

Older students can create their own sketch and trace in black marker.

Whether you are using paper, foam or peel and stick foam, students will first cut small black squares to create the outline of the maracas.

Tips:

1. If students are using peel and stick, give groups a cup, bag or box to collect all of the small pieces that will be peeled off of the back of the foam for easy clean up.

2. If students are using paper or foam and glue, teach them to use cotton swabs and that it only takes a bit of glue to attach a tiny square to their mosaic.

Now students can have fun creating their own mosaic designs inside of the maracas in black, red, yellow and green. Encourage students to use a variety of sizes and patterns to fill in the space. The colorful maraca mosaics are a festive way to decorate a Hispanic Heritage Month bulletin board.