Week 36 - Mexico and Cinco de Mayo

The week of Cinco de Mayo was another one of my favorite weeks in Pre-K all year.  We celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Monday, May 5^th, then continued talking about Mexico all week. 

 

Throughout the week we read some Mexico books that we got from the library, but most of them were to high-leveled for the kids, and we just had to look through the pictures and talk about what we saw.  We learned the numbers in Spanish up to 10, and practiced them by singing ’10 in a Bed’ with Spanish numbers, as well as counting on the calendar in Spanish each day.  I was shocked at how quickly some of the students picked up on learning the numbers.

Each morning, we also sang a Cinco de Mayo song from PreschoolExpress. 

 On Monday, we focused on pinatas, as that was a great way to celebrate the holiday.  We read the story ‘Pancho’s Pinata’, then of course did our own piñata (which we had made the week before using paper mache).  I wish I had pictures of the kids breaking the piñata open (with a wrapping paper tube), but I was the one holding it up and trying not to get hit!!

For snack, we ate chips and salsa and pretended to be in a cantina.

The kids got to make their very own Mini Pinatas from ADayofWonders.  To do this, we put small candies inside two Dixie cups taped together, put a string on top, then decorated the outside by gluing squares of tissue paper to it.  They turned out really cute!!

We also did a Mexican Flag Color sorting activity, and when they were done sorting they got the ‘Seal of Approval’, which was the Mexican seal to glue on top.

On Tuesday, we pretended to be Mexican jumping beans as we jumped around the room to Mexican music. 

For art, the kids all decorated their own Serapes by gluing together parts of a person to a piece of construction paper, then gluing designs on the construction paper to make a beautiful poncho.

On Wednesday, the kids watched the Disney movie ‘The Three Cabelleros’, which I was bummed I didn’t get to see because I had a training that day.  While they were watching the movie, they painted their plates for the next day’s activities.

On Thursday, our focus was on Sombreros.  We danced to the ‘Mexican Hat Dance’, and the kids made their very own Mini Sombreros by gluing a yellow cup to a painted yellow plate, and adding pompoms and string to hold it on. 

 

As a learning activity, we did Sombrero Bean Counting, which was an activity I made for them.  They each got a worksheet with 5 sombreros on them, numbered 1-5.  The kids had to trace the numbers, then color the sombreros according to their numbers, then put that many beans on the sombrero.  They had a lot of fun with this, and the leftover beans were great in a sensory bin!

On Friday we focused on Maracas.  In the morning, we danced around for almost 45 minutes with maracas that we already had, and the kids loved shaking them around.

For art, the students made their own Plastic Spoon Maracas (from Celebrations 

) using those leftover beans from yesterday (I made $4 worth of beans really last)! 

The week was so much fun, and everyone had a blast learning about Mexico!