Another contest submission! Check out these great videos from Needwood Middle School. Thank you for sharing Mrs. Sasser, looks like your students had a fun time celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month!
Tag Archives: Activities
¡AJÚUA! TRADITIONS, CUSTOMS, CELEBRATIONS, AND MORE
NATIONAL STANDARDS: COMMUNICATION, CULTURES, COMPARISONS, AND COMMUNITIES
Hispanic traditions and customs cannot be defined in a paragraph or in a book but in volumes of books. Hispanics share Spanish as the main language of communication; however, some words vary in meaning in different countries. Indigenous languages are still spoken all over Latin America. Hispanic traditions, customs, celebrations are similar; yet, some may vary from country to country. Do all Hispanics in the United States practice these traditions? Some Hispanics have completely assimilated into American life and do not practice their traditions. For others, traditions, customs, and celebrations are part of their everyday lives. Let’s take a glimpse of Hispanic traditions, customs, celebrations, and other areas that are practiced throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
Activity: Students select a topic of interest or review one assigned by the teacher to research and to prepare a presentation. (See examples) The presentation may be written (PPT), oral, visual, or a combination of all three depending on the topic.
Activity: Be Curious – Get the Story
NATIONAL STANDARDS: COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNITIES
Imagine that your classroom is a newspaper office and each student is a reporter. Each student will write an article for the special edition of the newspaper for Hispanic Heritage Month.
ACTIVITY: Engage in conversations
- Interview a Hispanic student, teacher, or administrator in your school
- Interview a Hispanic person in your community (neighbor, employee in a business/ restaurant, community leader, etc.).
- Conduct a phone interview with a Hispanic you know in another city.
ACTIVITY: Provide and obtain information
- Write an email to a Spanish-speaking pen pal in a Hispanic country or another part of the United States.
- Write a letter to a Hispanic government official (local, state, national) or a consulate from a Spanish-speaking country in the United States requesting specific information.
- Submit questions of interest to a journalist in a Spanish newspaper/journal or a Spanish TV or radio personality.
Restaurant Visit Activity
Andrea Roberson
Students can learn a lot about the different cultures around the Spanish-speaking world by visiting the restaurants in your community where Spanish is spoken. At the beginning of each school year, I challenged my students to find and visit these restaurants. Of course, I offered extra credit if the students brought in a receipt and wrote one paragraph essays detailing their experience, but my students were happy to learn about the culture, so they did it for their personal enjoyment and not the extra credit (at least that’s what I like to think).
Now that I look back at the extra credit I gave out, I realized the kids mostly went to Mexican restaurants. Yes, Mexican food is delicious and yes, it is a Spanish-speaking country, but we want our students to look beyond Mexico and gain some experiences from other Spanish-speaking countries. And we want to remind students that food is a great way to incorporate cultures from the Spanish-speaking world into our everyday lives.
So I think I’d like to issue another CHALLENGE:
