Central America

In this lesson, students will portray on a bulletin board or classroom wall the story of the banana. Students will learn how the history of the banana and how it is cultivated, transported and distributed.

In this lesson, students will examine primary source documents to draw inferences about 17th century American colonists.

This packet has an activity sheet per each Central American country within Latin America. Each sheet gives a map of the country, background information and fun activities to do in order to test knowledge of specific country. Email our Outreach coordinator Clea Conlin at cconlin@email.arizona.edu for materials.

Students will learn about retablos, which are small and portable homemade alters, in order to analyze their significance in Hispanic cultures. Using inspiration from original Peruvian and Mexican retablos, they will design paper retablos that signify what is important and meaningful in their own lives. Students will carefully decorate the paper retablos, creating a symmetrical design on the doors, inside and outside. This is a great way to immerse students in art within Hispanic culture and students will be able to make connections about the importance of art in Hispanic culture.

In this lesson students will compare and contrast the terrain of Mexico and the Central American countries and understand that geography helps shape the economic and cultural development of a country or region.

Learn to make Bunuelos, a type of desert that can be found throughout Latin America and are served year round but are typically served as a side dish during holidays with syrup.

This unit contains a total of three lesson plans, which focus on marimba music of indigenous people to Guatemala. Activities include attentive, engaged listening experiences, which lay the groundwork for actually performing an arrangement of the listening example. Note: Music used in this lesson needs to be purchased on Smithsonian Folkways website.

This lesson plan provides an overall introduction to the country of Guatemala, which is borders the southern part of Mexico. Guatemala is a par of Central America and this lesson plan provides lessons in mathematics, social studies and more.

In this lesson, students will become familiar with the life of Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, a Salvadoran peacemaker.

In this lesson plan, students will get to participate in two fun activities that will help them learn more about the country of El Salvador. The first activity is "Unpacking the Suitcase", where students will get to view the teacher unpacking their suitcase meant for traveling to El Salvador. The second activity is "Tissue Paper Cross", where students will get to create their own cross out of tissue paper which is a material many Salvadoran children use to make things in school.