Language Arts

This sheet provides a variety of activity ideas that students can enjoy in a fun day about Latin America. This can be used to finish off a long unit about Latin America.

This activity focuses on the migration of people from the Caribbean. Students will look at paintings by a contemporary Haitian artist that depict the political life in Haiti. In addition, students will read a poem that describes the poverty in Haiti and expresses the author's sentiments about this poverty. Students will also analyze the messages in political cartoons and construct a Hatian tap taps bus decorating it to illustrate the reasons people leave Haiti.

The purpose of this listen is to explore two different cultures' myths of the creation of the sun, and how the sun is a valued part of our environment and survival. Students will create a myth about the sun's origin, design a Sun Mask and perform a Sun Dance wearing their mask for a Sun Celebration in honor of the sun.

In this unit students will "visit" Ecuador and be introduced to a multitude of flora, fauna, people and traditions. Students will enjoy the differences and richness among the landscapes and people while building Spanish vocabulary. This contains 14 days of lessons but can be expanded or shortened as much as preferred.

In this lesson, students will be able to identify and use a variety of borrowed words from both English and Spanish in order to complete a word puzzles. Students will also be made aware of how languages, in this case English and Spanish, can evolve through contact with another language and the products and way of life represented by that language.

In this lesson, students will examine the economic situation, cultural elements and grassroots community development in contemporary Salvador, Brazil. Students will write a persuasive letter to an appropriate media outlet of their choice championing the cause of Dida, a community improvement organization in Salvador, Bahia or another similar group in the region.

In this lesson, students will gain general background information on the production of coffee. Students will learn what a coffee fazenda looks like and how it works. Students will also understand the importance the coffee in Brazil's economy has when it comes to trading with the United States.

In this unit, students will explore literature and music to gain an awareness and understanding of the history, people and culture of Brazil. Students will have the opportunity to listen to various types of Brazilian music and will make connections to the cultural and historical significance of these music forms. At the end, students will conduct research and present a final project that creatively brings together what they have experienced and what they have learned.

This exercise will familiarize students with a few basic Portuguese sentences and will help them see how Portuguese, Spanish and English often interrelate. A little less than half of Latin America's population lives in Brazil where the main language is Portuguese. Students will learn the importance of the Portuguese language and gain a good introduction to the language.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the idea of creation myth and discuss how and why these seem so similar across the world. This creation myth has elements in common with creation stories all over the world and serves as a perfect example and introduction to the shared elements in world folklore.