Hispanic Heritage Month is the perfect time for us as a familia to share our Hispanic heritage with little one's friends at school, and with our community.
Although Latinos are the second largest, and fastest growing minority group in the United States in our small Southern community we don't have a large Latino presence. This is our opportunity to educate others on the beauty and richness of our heritage so they too can embrace diversity. This is significantly important due to all the negative media towards Latinos that we are seeing daily.
Monica from Mommy Maestra sums it up on her post on Why We Need Hispanic Heritage Month:
"Hispanic Heritage Month is a vitally important observance for the United States, perhaps now more than ever. According to the U.S. Census, there are 53 million Hispanics in the country. And yet every day media reports show an increasing hostility toward Hispanic immigrants and Spanish-speaking families as they are used for political platforms, promoting stereotypes and ignorant backlash."
Therefore, we need to continue to instill pride in our bilingual and multicultural child. Particularly since we live in a community where Latinos are far and few.
Classroom
In little one's classroom, he only has one Hispanic friend. She too, is bilingual and her parents are from Mexico. Since they are the only two Latino and bicultural children in their classroom. I approached her Mom so her daughter can participate in a special presentation activity on sharing their heritage. I thought it'd be cool for them to do it together! The activity includes: reading a book, talking about where their family comes from, and gifting their classmates with a mini-piñata.
Children's Book
The book they both read was F is for Fiesta by Susan Middldeton Elya. It's perfect for the occasion and has enough words in Spanish for the children to read aloud, and enough words in English for their monolingual classmates to understand. The book highlights the Hispanic culture through the use of the Spanish alphabet.
Activity Presentation
They each both made a tri-fold. Little one helped cut-out, and glue the pictures. We also included a picture of us with the familia in Puerto Rico, and another one of his Abuelo from Ecuador with both of us. He was so excited about the presentation! His friend, and classmate shared a similar tri-fold with pictures, and information on Mexico.
Special Treat
For the treats we made mini-piñatas filled with Mexican candy. We made them out of toilet paper rolls and wrapped with colorful party streamers, and ribbon to carry.
This was a fun activity to put together! I am also grateful for little one's friend's mom on going along with my crazy idea, and helping me make the min-piñatas while our children played in Spanish.
Community
I reached out to the director of our local library to bring awareness on Hispanic Heritage Month. What I initially had in mind was to volunteer on setting-up a table with children's book on notable Hispanic figures, and information on Spanish speaking countries. In our conversation, I mentioned having celebrated a Hispanic Heritage Month Fiesta last year in our home. She loved the idea, and a fiesta was planned! I was thrilled to have my name mentioned as a special guest in "A Celebration of Hispanic Culture."
The children's book Abuela by Arthur Dorros was read by our child, and I had a Power Point presentation in which I talked about where our son's Abuelas were from both Puerto Rico and Ecuador, and valuable information on Hispanic Heritage Month.
We had two different crafts: papel picado, and plastic bottle maracas. In the background, I was playing both Lucky Diaz De Aqui y de Alla and Mister G's ABC Fiesta's CD. The guest were also treated to freshly made churros fried on the spot!
I am beyond happy with our participation celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month at the library. We had a great outcome, and our son surprised me by wanting to read the book in English/Spanish all by himself to a room full of people. I am also thankful for the emotional support my husband, and dear friends gave me with their mere presence. I am also eternally grateful to the director of the library on allowing me the opportunity to share the beauty and richness of our Hispanic heritage to our community.
It is my hope that we've planted the seed of knowledge on our Hispanic culture, and heritage in the hearts of the children in our son's classroom, and in the community. Thus bridging the gap of ignorance, and prejudice of the unknown with a new found knowledge that embraces diversity.
Looking for more ideas on how to bring Hispanic Heritage Month to your classroom, or homeschool? Check out my Hispanic Heritage Month Pinterest Board:
Multicultural Kid Blogs Hispanic Heritage Month Series and Giveaway
Multicultural Kid Blogs is excited to be hosting its FOURTH annual Hispanic Heritage Month series
Giveaway ended 2015