A school-wide fiesta for CINCO DE MAYO is a fine way to honor to México, our neighbor to the south.
Please note that CINCO DE MAYO is not Mexican Independence Day. It is a celebration of the great Mexican victory against the French in the small town of Puebla.
First, to get psyched for the big day, I have my classes do a countdown using a combined calendar for abril y mayo.
Because the Mexican flag is such an important symbol to the Mexican people and the symbols on it so fascinating for young children, I concentrate on introducing it next. The children guess what animals might be on the Mexican flag and make a brainstormed list in Spanish as they discover they are el águila (eagle) y la víbora (snake). I borrow a real cactus plant to show children who have never seen one. It's important that the children see clearly the seal with the eagle on the cactus with a snake in its beak in the center.
I go to www.flags.net to get a perfect escudo (seal) in color for my own use and make an extra-large poster-size flag, using it in the center. I ask the children which color appears on the left, center, and right (la izquierda [,verde], el centro [blanco] y la derecha [rojo]). The children then color their own Mexican flag. Here is another site for an escudo de México:
To have the children get some geographic understanding of the locations of México and the United States, I display a map of North America and we locate the countries. I also have the children do a TPR exercise with a chant as well. Credit goes to Cherice Montgomery of Southeast High School in Wichita, Kansas for this idea:
El mundo (the children stand and stretch out their arms and hands as far as they can)
Norteamérica, un continente (the children bring their hands closer)
Estados Unidos, un país (the children bring their hands in still closer)
México, un país grande (the children bring their hands in closer still)
Puebla, un pueblo famoso (the children bring their hands close together)
¡Viva México!
Making the Mexican flag into a chonchón (windsock) is a nice idea, too. Take 9 x 12 inch white construction paper and photocopy a black outline of the escudo in the center. (Make sure the children write their first name on the reverse side of the paper first in light pencil before construction; I have them write the words el chonchón too so they can remember what it is they made.)
I precut smaller pieces of red and green paper to fit and be stapled on the appropriate sides. Roll up the completed flag and staple it WELL. Glue (purple glue sticks are best) 12" thin pieces of green and red crepe paper as tails on one end. On the other end, punch two holes and string a yarn handle. I use old-fashioned reinforcements on the inside of the punched holes before the yarn is strung through to avoid rips. It works! The children love to spin around and make their chonchón go fast!
Of course, on CINCO DE MAYO, we enthusiastically dance "la raspa"; I use the fine recording by José Luis Orozco in his fourth volume of children's songs.
The children in the grades two, three, and four who have practiced the dance in class are paired up with children from the lower grades to dance together. The circles on the blacktop were perfect for placement of the dancing couples. I never insist that a girl dance with a boy if there is discomfort. Same sex pairs are fine.
I also composed a small, simple take-home booklet with drawings to color to highlight events in CINCO DE MAYO. My classes compare/contrast this cultural celebration via a Venn diagram to our Fourth of July beforehand -- the fireworks, the parades, the picnics, flags, music, patriotic symbols, the food, and families being together.
It was great having our CINCO DE MAYO fiesta outside on the blacktop last year. I strung heavy twine between two basketball hoops and hung a real Mexican flag, donated for the day by one of our students whose grandmother is from México. I hung long pieces of red, green, and white crepe paper from the hoops and anywhere else possible. It was a beautiful, breezy day which charged the atmosphere for celebration. I played mariachi music constantly.
I brought my cart outside and hung posters of México and wrote CINCO DE MAYO in decorative letters on the side. I also hung bunches of real, large white (light yellow), red, and green peppers on it; many Mexican families hang the same on their doorways on this special day.
I asked the children to dress in as much red, green, and white as they could and gave small prizes to the best dressed. We borrowed a verse from ¡Qué bonita bandera!, a famous Puerto Rican patriotic song, and sang it this way:
¡Qué bonita bandera!
¡Qué bonita bandera!
¡Qué bonita bandera!
La bandera mexicana.
We then chanted:
Verde, blanco y rojo
¡Viva, viva México!
The song ¡Qué bonita bandera! is found in Volume 6 of José-Luis Orozco's new FIESTA album and also available inexpensively as sheet music by Alejandro Jiménez.
I wore my sombrero and followed my regular schedule for the day. The Pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade classes signed up beforehand to visit our celebration during the times that the second, third, and fourth graders would be there to get a taste of a CINCO DE MAYO fiesta. Some little children just watched the dancing; others paired up with friends, brothers, or sisters and danced away. Teachers danced with other teachers or with children. Everyone had a great time and had a sampling of authentic cultural experiences of México.
