Activities for Hispanic Heritage Month
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Hispanic Heritage Month takes place from September 15 to October 15. We love celebrating our different cultures and backgrounds in the classroom, as well as teaching about different cultures that our students may not have been exposed to before! There are many fun things you can do for Hispanic Heritage Month, but Simple Special Ed makes it easy! Check out the Simple book companions bundle for a load of fun and exciting activities! Each book is written by a Hispanic author, and they cover topics such as diversity, Hispanic culture, Day of the Dead, and more!
What is included?
Before you ask, no, you do not need the physical book. You can easily use the virtual read-aloud, and there is one linked in each book companion as well. Each book companion includes comprehension quizzes, story maps, sequencing, vocabulary, a visual craft, and teacher materials for suggested use and planning. Another great bonus is that there are different levels to differentiate the different activities for your students as well.
How Do I Use It?
At my school, my students do not go to special classes, such as library, music, and art. I do those activities in my class on alternating days throughout the week. During our whole-group library time is when I do these book companions, and then I did the visual craft during our whole-group art time. I played each book virtually. I also will pause the story while playing to stop and ask questions. Some students answer the questions verbally when given answer choices, while some use their AAC device, while some come up to the board and touch the part of the story that answers the question. Each activity is also on the Smart Board to allow the students to take turns with the activities on the board. You can see an example of this in the picture below.
You could also utilize these book companions during your ELA centers and to target IEP goals! In the past, I have read the book during a quick whole-group lesson time, and then each day of the week, we did a different differentiated activity to go with the book in our centers. Some IEP goals that can be targeted with these companions include sequencing a story, answering WH questions, following 1-2 step directions, matching word to picture, and much more!
1. “The Dead Family Diaz” by P.J. Bracegirdle
Get the book: The Dead Family Diaz on Amazon
This was my students’ favorite book out of the four! It it centered around the holiday Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). This book was full of lots of color and excitement, and it had a simple storyline to follow. This book is great for any age and/or grade level as well. I currently have students in grades 2nd-7th in my classroom at varying levels, and they all loved it! It had a simple storyline to follow. The main character, Angelito, is a skeleton boy who loses his family. Filled with fear, he meets a human friend, and then he finds his family again, and he is happy. Below is a picture of the story being played in my powerpoint virtually.
One fun thing I did with this book was utilize lots of emotions! In my self contained class, we work a lot on identifying emotions and what to do with them, so I really focused on the different emotions the main character felt throughout the story. We even took turns acting out the emotions!
2. “Pepe and the Parade” by Tracey Kyle
Get the book: Pepe and the Parade on Amazon
This was my personal favorite book! It follows the main character, Pepe, through the Hispanic Heritage Day Parade. There are lots of different Hispanic cultures represented throughout this book. It can be a fun one to do if you have students from different Hispanic backgrounds, as they may recognize some familiar foods, music, or even their country!
This book is also great for many different age ranges, but the different Hispanic words in it may be confusing for some. You could use this to pre-teach some cultural vocaulary as well! The book companion also offers some vocabulary activities. I would suggest pairing the vocabulary activities in this book with some different cultural vocabulary terms as a fun pre-teach lesson prior to listening to the book. Just an idea!
Below is a picture of the visual craft that went with the book. We all made the maracas, and then I played some child Spanish musci, and they had fun shaking their maracas to the songs.
3. “Islandborn” by Junot Diaz
Get the book: Islandborn on Amazon
This book was a little longer, so I would recommend it more for higher elementary levels, or for children who have a longer attention span. It focused on the main character, Lola, as she interviews her family about what her home country was like. She ends up drawing a picture of “the island” for her teacher at school. Below is a picture of some of my students doing the visual craft of creating an island picture and filling out the sentence starter.
4. “Just Ask!” by Sonia Sotomayor
Get the book: Just Ask! on Amazon
This book celebrates uniqueness and diversity. It relates to many different cultures and abilities. There is even a character with Autism in the book! Your students will love seeing some of the characters relate directly to them. The story covers amny diffferent characters with unique qualities, and it compares it to a garden with many different beautiful flowers.
Hispanic Heritage Month is a fun time to share about different cultures, and these book companions are a great way to do that! Don’t forget to get your book compnaions here.
P.S. You can also do these book companions at any time, not just during Hispanic Heritage Month!
