Middle

In this lesson, students will listen to a corrido and read the words of another corrido. Students will discuss the reasons people leave Mexico and the attraction of the United States. As a group, they write a song telling the class why they would leave Mexico.

Students will learn about "the market", a basic economic institution of both pre-Colombian and present day Mexican (Latin American) culture. They will also be taught concepts such as barter, money, value, exchange and work.

In this lesson, students will illustrate the high cultural level achieved by the Mayans in their pre-Colombian societies by focusing on their system of arithmetic which they perfected in order to study astronomy and calendars.

This activity packet focuses on the holiday of Christmas within the country of Mexico. Traditions, Costumes and Food are all discussed as a part of culture.

In these few activities students will learn songs enjoyed by children in Mexico and will be introduced to a variety of Mexican crafts. This is a fun way to immerse younger students into the Mexican culture!

In this lesson students will make their own retablos, which are three dimensional sculptures contained in a box. Students will use the retablos to illustrate a village scene, legend, story or other common topic. Creating a retablo will help students better understand the culture of the Mexican people.

In this lesson, students will create their own paintings and will be able to analyze the technique used in relation to Latin American art, identify some of the flora and fauna in Mexico and discuss the raw materials of art and the artists environment.

In this lesson, students will be able to enumerate some of the different animals and plants that were important in pre-Colombian cultures of Mexico. They will also learn how these were incorporated into art forms through stylization.

Students will understand and apply the Maya Long Count calendar system. Students will be asked to calculate the date of their birth in the system.

In this lesson, students will learn how to describe some U.S. influences in Latin America after directly experiencing real advertising from several newspapers. They will be able to compare this with Latin American influence on our own market and consumption.