Easy Ways to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo

It’s Cinco de Mayo, aka May 5th, which is the celebration of the Battle of Puebla, during which vastly outnumbered Mexican forces defeated French invaders during the French-Mexican War (contrary to popular belief it has nothing to do with Mexican independence, which is marked on September 16.)

Cinco de Mayo is fun to celebrate with kids because it’s a colorful holiday (in the United States, at least) and give you an opportunity to talk about Mexican culture, eat fun food and do great crafts.

Check out these Cinco De Mayo Craft Kits

Start out by watching some teacher-approved videos about Cinco de Mayo and other topics in Spanish. This collection is from Simply Kinder.

Or use this book list from Planet Smarty to find some good kids’ books about Mexico.

Make Mexico-inspired crafts like:

Tissue Paper Papel Picados | Create Craft Love

Repujado-style Cuff Bracelet | Spanglish Baby

Folk Art Bowls | Inspired by Family Mag

Mexican Flag Craft | Paper and Glue

Upcycled Castanets | Education.com

Paper Bag Pinata | Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom

Foam Cup Maracas | Macaroni Kid

Easter Egg Maracas | Our Daily Craft

And don’t forget the food! It’s not very culturally sensitive to default to Tex-Mex style tacos for Cinco de Mayo, so why not try:

Arroz con Pollo | Kidspot

Chicken Chilaquiles | Hope’s Kitchen

Cheesy Tortilla Soup | Produce on Parade

Or check out the kid-friendly Mexican recipes at Food.com (hello, Mexican hot chocolate!) or the recipes from the episode of Mexican Made Easy on Food Network about cooking with kids. So yummy!

Then just turn on some Mexican music and you’re ready to go.

How do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo? I’d love to hear your ideas.

Next Plan Idea:

Bastille Day Activities for Kids

Every year at my daughter’s school I think it’s the second or third graders do an activity where they have to disguise a turkey to keep it from being eaten at Thanksgiving. The kids draw the disguise and write a little bit about why they thing that would be an effective way for the turkey to hide. There were some really creative ideas, including one year one was dressed as an eraser for some reason?

If this is an activity you’d like to try with kids in the classroom or at home, check out these turkey in disguise printables to get you started.

If you want to keep it totally basic you can just print out a turkey in disguise coloring sheet like these from The Best Ideas for Kids. There are a few different options kids can use to decorate and they write in what their turkey is disguised as.

My Bored Toddler has a similar printable that just asks what the child will cover the turkey with to hide it. This one would be fun to use in a plastic sleeve or laminated, then you can use it with playdough, cover it with leaves or glass gems or draw on it and use it again.

Easy Peasy and Fun has a paper doll-inspired take on turkey disguises, with printable costumes you can take on and off to hide your turkey quickly. The disguise is attached to the regular turkey with a tab so you can flip it up and down to have a regular turkey or one disguised as a peacock, football player, astronaut and more. This one includes a writing activity so students can explain why they picked the disguise they did and why they think it will work.

Red Ted Art has a set of 12 disguises you can buy (or you can get six random costumes for free) that come in both color and black and white. Kids can just assemble the turkeys or they can color them and then put them together. The set includes a basketball player, pirate, chef, unicorn, mermaid, robot and more. It doesn’t include a writing activity but you could also have kids write about which character they picked and why.

Next Plan Idea:

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