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Sharing knowledge about Mexico Social Studies class
  1. Ask students to brainstorm what they know about Mexico.
  2. On the board, categorize student knowledge, and keep a record of it so as to know where to focus your instruction.
  3. Pay particular attention to stereotypes that students may have about Mexico and Mexican people, in order to dispel them later on during the course of the unit.
  4. Impress on students that they know a lot about Mexico already, and that through this unit they will learn to know their neighbors even better.
Finding Mexico Social Studies class, individual
  1. Show students a wall map of Mexico and ask them to raise their hands when they have located it.
  2. Ask a volunteer to come and locate Mexico on the map. Ask the volunteer to trace Mexico's shape with her/his finger. What does the shape remind them of?
  3. Ask students which countries border Mexico to the north and the south. Ask students to identify the three bodies of water that lap the coasts of Mexico.
  4. Ask students to brainstorm in which books they can find a map of Mexico (dictionaries, encyclopedias, travel books, Mexican history books, etc.)
  5. Then hand students tracing paper and pencils and take them to the library. Ask students to each find a book that contains a map of Mexico and to trace it, along with part of the countries that border Mexico to the north and to the south. If there are not enough books for each, take smaller groups to the library.
  6. Back in class, ask students to color and label Mexico, the bodies of water, as well as its bordering countries.
  7. Place the traced map in students' folders.
Creating a book about Mexico Language Arts, Social Studies individual
  1. Help students create a booklet by taking one colored and five white 8.50 x 11 in. sheets of paper. Students will fold the stack of sheets in half with the colored sheet on the outside and staple the crease twice.
  2. Have students write Mexico on the booklet cover and illustrate it. Have them write their names on the inside cover.
  3. Have students research Mexico's flag and money, and draw/color them on the first and second pages of the booklet.
  4. On the following page, have students list all the languages that are spoken in Mexico, including Spanish.
  5. On the inside double page, have them trace a map of Mexico, and place/label the Mexican capital and major cities.
  6. As the unit unfolds, have students write or draw on the remaining pages their Mexican food experiences (see Going to a Mexican restaurant , making ponche , Tasting Mexican candy, etc.) and any other insights they may gain from this unit.
Creating Mexican play money Social Studies pair, individual
  1. Pair students and send them to the computer lab to research Mexican money.
  2. Ask that they find out what the currency is, how many coins and bills there are, as well as the value of coins and bills.
  3. Have each pair print two copies of coins and bills.
  4. In class or as homework, ask that students glue their sheets of coins and bills onto backing cardboard, and carefully cut coins and bills.
  5. Collect all play money and use for games such as Playing bingo with Mexican money.
Making a Mexican piñata Art/PE/Music small group
  1. Go to the provided website and download instructions to make a piñata.
  2. Go over the instructions with students in class.
  3. Have students form groups of 3-4 and give each group the material necessary to make a piñata. Make sure that all students in a group get to participate in the making of the piñatas.
  4. Collect the piñatas, collect some money from students or ask for parent donations of candy.
  5. Fill the piñatas with candy and reward students with piñata games as the unit on Mexico unfolds.
Reading magic tales from Mexico Language Arts individual
  1. Go to www.g-world.org/magictales and choose a Mexican tale to read to your students.
  2. Ask pre-reading questions to prepare students to listen and understand the tale more effectively.
  3. Read the tale to the students, stopping often to ask comprehension questions.
  4. When you have read the entire tale, help students retell the story.
  5. Then give students an empty cereal box, glue and color paper, and have them cover the cereal box with the colored paper.
  6. Then ask them to remake the story on the cereal box.
    a. One of the wide side is the cover, on which they will write the title of the tale; they will also illustrate a point of the story with drawings on this side.
    b. They will write the keywords and the plot on the other wide side.
    c. On one of the slim sides they will write what they found interesting in the story.
    d. They will make a list of the tale's characters on the other slim side.
  7. Students may also make a mobile out of the characters and keywords.
Making a living library Social Studies, Language Arts class
  1. This activity is most interesting and feasible if you live in an area of the country where students can have access to Mexican people. If so:
  2. Explain to students that this activity is about collecting stories from Mexican families. The goal of this activity is to make people understand each other better by inquiring into a neighbor/friend/stranger's life and reporting their stories.
  3. Brainstorm with students questions that they might want to know about Mexican people, e.g. how the family or their ancestors came to the United States and why, the hardships they encountered, their childhood stories, etc.
  4. Send the questions home for students to share with their parents, as well as a cover letter explaining to parents the purpose of creating a living library. Make sure that parents understand that they will need to go along with their children to meet, ask questions, and collect answers from the Mexican families. The children, however, should be in charge of asking the questions and recording the answers, if possible.
  5. Give enough time for students to identify a Mexican family interested in sharing their story and obtain permission from them to publish their story into the school's newspaper and/or website. The families should have editorial privileges.
  6. Once stories have been collected, help children write them out. Make sure that people's rights for privacy are respected and change the names of Mexican families, locations, etc.
  7. Send the children back to the Mexican families with the written stories in order to check with them for content. Make all necessary modifications.
  8. Once the stories have been approved, publish them with students onto the school's newspaper or on the class's website.
  9. Debrief with students what they learned from the experience. Record this information and place it also on the school's website.
Making clay pots Arts/PE/Music individual
  1. Download and print pictures of Mexican pottery (go to http://images.google.com/, type in Mexican pottery ) and hang them around the classroom.
  2. Obtain self-hardening clay and pottery-carving tools.
  3. Print out the illustrated instructions (see provided websites), post or hand them out to students and demonstrate how to make a pinch pot.
  4. Let the pots dry overnight loosely covered with plastic, or until leather hard (clay has the glossy aspect of leather, and is no more wet to the touch but is still fairly malleable).
  5. Let students reproduce or imitate some of the carvings that are exhibited on the Mexican pottery pictures. Remind students to manipulate their bowls gently or they will break or dent.
  6. Let dry until hardened.
  7. Students may paint their pots or leave them as they are.
  8. Take pictures of the pots and display on the school website.
Making a Mexican wall hanging Arts/PE/Music individual
  1. This activity is a typical activity that Mexican children make in elementary school.
  2. Give each student a 2-foot long, 1-foot wide piece of black felt and a small wooden stick. Help students glue and/or staple one end of the felt around the wooden stick.
  3. Ask students to cut house shapes out of color felt to represent their own house, yard, street, etc.
  4. Help students glue their shapes onto the strip of black felt.
  5. Attach string around the wooden stick so that wall hanging can be hung.
  6. Take digital pictures and place into students' folders or on the class website.
Making a Mexican calendar Social Studies, Arts/PE/Music individual, class
  1. Explain to students that the Mexican week does not start on Sunday but on Monday. Have students say the days of the week in Spanish starting with Monday.
  2. Print out a calendar template and give one to each child. Assign a month to each child: s/he will be responsible for the decoration of that particular month. Two children may have the same month to illustrate, as there will probably be enough students to make two or more calendars.
  3. Ask each student to draw a picture for the month s/he is assigned on a separate sheet of paper. Each picture must represent some aspect of Mexico or Mexican culture. The drawings may be finished at home.
  4. Collect all artwork and take digital pictures of each drawing.
  5. Assemble or ask students to assemble the calendar in a publishing software application.
  6. Publish and send home one calendar per child, or help children sell calendars to raise money for Mexican migrant workers.
Making hibiscus water (agua fresca de Jamaica) Arts/PE/Music class
  1. In your local Mexican or health food store, purchase dried hibiscus blossoms (jamaica).
  2. In class, in the school kitchen, place the blossoms in water and boil them until they turn burgundy red.
  3. Let stand a few minutes, and run the water through a sieve, removing the blossoms.
  4. Serve lukewarm with sugar. Students will enjoy the unusual taste of this popular Mexican drink. This drink is slightly diuretic and very refreshing.
Making Ponche Arts/PE/Music class
  1. In your local Mexican or health food store, purchase all ingredients to make ponche.
  2. Take the children to the kitchen if your school has one and prepare it with them. If your school does not have a convenient kitchen, prepare the ponche at home and bring it to school for students to taste.
  3. Have a piñata party with ponche.
Making Mexican chocolate Science class
  1. Making chocolate is an art in Mexico and a special wooden tool is required. A picture of the tool has been provided. It is called un molinillo. This tool can be obtained at your local Mexican store or on the Internet.
  2. At your local Mexican store or on the Internet, purchase Mexican or Hispanic chocolate. The chocolate used is usually known as Chocolate de la abuela or chocolate de tabla.
  3. In the school kitchen, heat the milk. When the milk is hot, and before ebullition, add the chocolate in pieces. Let it melt while stirring.
  4. With the special tool, froth the chocolate milk mixture by rubbing the tool's handle between the palms of your hand, creating a high-speed rotation. This action is called batir el chocolate.
  5. Pour into individual cups and let students enjoy their Mexican chocolate.
Making Mexican tortillas Math class
  1. Print the recipe and bring to class the ingredients needed to make tortillas.
  2. You may want to enlist the help of a Hispanic parent to help.
  3. Read the instructions to students, and have them help you measure the ingredients, and follow the recipe.
  4. You may want to ask the kitchen in advance to help with the cooking part, or do it at home and bring the finished products to class the next day for student sampling.
Going to a Mexican restaurant Arts/PE/Music class
  1. As a class, take a field trip to the local restaurant, and help students order their food in Spanish.
  2. Back to class, ask students to draw and color what they ate, as well as depicting the impressions they got from their experience at the Mexican restaurant.
Making Calacas candles Arts/PE/Music individual
  1. Purchase or ask students to bring glass tumblers to class.
  2. Melt wax, pour it in each tumbler and let solidify.
  3. Give one tumbler to each student as well as glass paint and color pens. Ask students to decorate their tumblers with calacas , or whimsical skeletons.
  4. The decorated tumblers can be lit during El Día de los Muertos or any other Hispanic event taking place in your classroom.
Making a “Día de los Muertos” altar Social Studies, Arts/PE/Music class, individual
  1. Honoring one's Dead is very important in the Mexican culture. Far from being afraid of death and dead people, Mexicans believe in remembering and respecting them by honoring them all year long, as well as celebrating them during a particular 3-day period. Beautiful and artistic flower arrangements, candles, incense, candy, foods of all sorts (mostly what the Dead being honored liked to eat), accompany the pictures of the Dead which are usually displayed, on the Día de los Muertos , on an altar. You can find a picture of an altar at http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/altar/
  2. Explain to students the purpose and culture behind the altar and the Día de los Muertos. Explain that the class will make an altar.
  3. Take a big cardboard box, and have students paint it.
  4. Have students make paper flowers, calacas candles (see Making calacas candles activity ) , make fruit in paper maché such as guavas, fresas, plátanos, etc.
  5. Once the altar is completed, make ponche, Mexican chocolate , Hibiscus water and celebrate with a piñata.
  6. Take pictures of the different artifacts created by the students as well as of the party, and post on the school website.
  7. Other Día de los Muertos arts and crafts can be found at http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/crafts/
Making papel picado Arts/PE/Music individual
  1. Papel picado is made out of colorful tissue paper that is cut in intricate patterns. The repetitive pattern is usually achieved by folding the strip of paper a number of times and by carving the desired pattern into the paper thickness. It is usually hung in front of the altar or around the room to decorate.
  2. Hand students long strips of colored tissue or crepe paper and help them fold them to obtain squares.
  3. Have students trace a particular design on the first page of their folded strip.
  4. Then have them cut through the paper thickness along the traced lines.
  5. Unfold, and hang around the classroom to celebrate El Día de los Muertos or any other Hispanic event taking place in your classroom.
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