Mexico

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.

This lesson plan will focus on teaching student about the study of masked dance traditions of Guerrero and students will be able to learn vocabulary while translating a story into a drama.

This activity will guide students in learning how to make traditional Mexican Paper flowers. This is a great way to immerse students in Mexican art and culture.

In this activity, students will learn how to create traditional Mexican costumes out of butcher paper. Students can create tigers, mermaids and more. For more examples, reference books about Mexican mask and dance traditions.

This document contains an educational bilingual collection of 36 songs (19 each in English and Spanish) and activities promoting healthy nutrition for children and adults by award-winning author, educator and singer Jose-Luis Orozco. The songs provide the catalyst to ignite interest and enhance students learning about good nutrition and healthy habits while developing oral language and early literacy skills in English and Spanish.

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.

This unit contains lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school which teach students about the famous "Day of the Dead" or "Dia de los Muertos" celebrated in Mexico. The unit provides historical background of the holiday as well as the origins of a similar and popular holiday within the United States, "Halloween". The lessons allow students to compare Day of the Dead and Halloween and learn about the significance of the Day of the Dead within Mexico.

This unit provides three lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school grades regarding Mariachi Music. Students will explore this popular form of Music founded in Mexico. Students will get the opportunity to listen, dance and analyze Mariachi music while learning about Mexican culture in general.

This teacher's guide gives a great overview of Mariachi including the different theories on where the word "Mariachi" came from, background on the pioneers of mariachi music and different forms of mariachi music. This guide can easily be adapted into a lesson to be taught to all grade levels.

This lesson plan is adaptable and reaches levels from 3rd to 12th grade. Students will be able to listen to music, analyzing lyrics and beats while also getting to know the culture of Mexico through music and dance. The materials for the lesson include audio which needs to be purchased from Smithsonian Folkway site.