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.

A few years ago I shared some pumpkin themed sensory activities for kids, but I wanted to get a little more general and do some fall sensory ideas that can take you from Halloween al the way to Thanksgiving.

Playdough is a classic sensory activity, especially if kids can help make it, too. These playdough recipes from The Montessori Twin Mama are fall colored and scented with cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and apple pie spice (I honestly don’t know what the difference is!). Or try this fun maple playdough from Happy Toddler Playtime.

Throw together some cookie cutters, googly eyes and other fun things to make an easy fall playdough tray (similar to what I did on this Halloween playdough activity).

How about some fall themed slime? Natural Beach Living gave a basic slime recipe a fall twist with food coloring and glitter. Leaf shaped sequins make it even more fun. Little Bins for Little Hands also has a cinnamon slime, which is great for fall but can also carry you all the way through Christmas.

Raising Wild Things Sensory has some great easy to make fall themed sensory bottles, which you can add fall things to, or pompoms or whatever kind of I spy items you might want to include. They also have a fun apple moon sand sensory bin that has me wondering if you could add something scented to moon sand (I always hated the smell!).

And of course there are all kinds of sensory bins you can make for fall. I like this apple picking one from Happy Toddler Playtime that uses fake leaves and little apple toys. It has the added challenge of trying to pick the apples up through a mesh of branches — kind of like a low-tech game of Operation!

You can also do a short-lived sensory bin with real leaves, or use any kind of beans, brown rice, oats or lentils to make your base. Some more great ideas can be found at Fab Everyday. Their post includes some specific Halloween and Thanksgiving themed sensory bins, too.

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