Ocho de Mayo!

     Well, in my Cinco de Mayo celebration planning phase, I didn't anticipate a yard sale, bake sale and car wash at the church. We were all tired de Mayo, so we had to celebrate on the following Tuesday instead.

     I had originally planned to do a study of the Ancient Aztecs, Inca and Maya, which we did, and follow that with a week long study of Mexico, which we did, and end that week with the Cinco de Mayo celebration, which we did the following Tuesday.

These are a few of the resources I had on hand.....

....and I checked out the rest of what we used from the library.


Here is what we did:

-mapwork, labeling Mexico and surrounding areas, older kids labeled the different Mexican states
-colored the flag
-took a look at how different/similar our lives are to families in Mexico
-made a timeline of major Mexican events
-read a book about Vaqueros
-read about the Chicle tree and sampled Chiclets gum
-read a book about Day of the Dead
-researched Volcano Paricutin
-researched various chili peppers
-looked at some artwork by Diego Rivera
-listed to Mariachi music
-read books about the country's facts (temperature, exports, government, etc.)
-looked at several books on animals

One day was CHOCOLATE DAY! We......

-read a book about the history of chocolate
-read how chocolate is made
-read biographies on Milton Hershey, and the Mars Family
-chocolate games and worksheets from the chocolate unit studies books
-did an online tour of the Hershey factory
-used the Hershey's and M & M's candy math books for some yummy math lessons............

Then, Cinco de Mayo!!

We made these mini chili pepper pinatas. It's basically a half sheet of card stock folded into a cone, then rolled in green tissue paper. Put in your candy, fold and tape the bottom, then twist the top of the green tissue paper. Take red crepe paper, make slits with tissue for a "fringe" effect, then wrap it around your green tissue, leaving the green twist exposed for the stem. Just secure the red crepe paper with tape or glue stick at each end.

A Maya mummy race with the left over crepe paper.

We also made tissue paper flowers. These are so easy. Choose 6 or so layers of tissue paper, fold them accordian style, secure them in the middle with a pipe cleaner, then separate out the layers.

I had a whole list of fun recipes to make, but we ended up having tacos. Because that was easy. And I was still tired. But, we did have a fun time!


Chocolate Printables

Chocolate Unit Study by Homeschool Share

Mexico Recipes
Coloring Page

Maracas Color Page

Sombrero Color Page

Flag of Mexico

Map of Mexico

Another Map and Questions

Color Page of Traditional Clothes

How to Make Castanets

Aztec Printables

Mexico Printables

Ojo de Dios Craft

The Story of Paricutin

Recipe for Chicken Mole

A Mexican Food Pyramid

Chicle

Chili Pepper Color Sheet and Scoville Scale

Another Chili Pepper Sheet and information on Chili Peppers

A Painting by Diego Rivera and a copy to color