Friday, May 4, 2012

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Kids

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo -- the celebration of the courage of the Mexican people during the battle (La Batalla de Puebla) on May 5th, 1862.

To celebrate with the kids serve Mexican food for meals today. A favorite Mexican food for kids is tacos. Just heat up so corn and flour tortillas and put ground beef or carne asada, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, black beans, refried beans, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream into separate bowls and allow the kids to fill the taco shells with their favorite ingredients.

Maracas
You will need two Styrofoam or paper cups, paint, pom-poms and buttons, hot glue gun, and dried beans. Paint cups with tan paint and let dry. Then, let the kids decorate the cups by painting on swirling or curvy lines. We used red paint for ours. Place a handful of dried beans into one of the cups. Put a layer of hot glue onto the rim of the cup with the beans in it before quickly placing the other cup on top of it, lining up the rims of both cups. Allow to dry completely. Allow the children to finish decorating with pom-poms around the center (to hide the glue line). We also used mini pom-poms to dot the peaks of the zig-zags.

Paper Plate and Bowl Sombrero
Turn a paper plate and Styrofoam or paper bowl into a sombrero. The paper plate serves as the brim of the sombrero. Turn the bowl upside down on the middle of the paper plate and glue. The cup will create the top part of the sombrero. Let the kids decorate the hat with paint, sequins, and pom-poms.

1 comment:

Lisa said...

A few years ago a nanny friend and I did the pinata, sombreros etc with the kids who were one to two. Then we did a sensory thing where they could touch and play with cold refried beans and rice.

One can also play the music too while you eat.

Now with my charges being older we get into the historical significance of Cinco de Mayo... and personally it's a anniverary of a very symbolic event in Wisconsin regarding workers right I learned last year... so now I try to find a way to eat brats too.