Lesson 5 Reflection

Our fifth lesson was about Mexico's culture. We started the lesson with a short matching activity where students would have to match a picture or short definition to the correct vocabulary word. The poster was covered up with papers, so students would be able to focus in on one term at a time, while also having the opportunity to reveal the next word. Each word and definition, after being read by us, would be read together as a group to further their comprehension. The first few vocabulary words revolved around culture, tradition, and values, while the rest surrounded two of Mexico's holiday (Cinco de Mayo and Day of the Dead).

Our lesson was split so students would listen to a read aloud and complete a corresponding activity. For the Day of the Dead we read the book ‘Day of the Dead: A First Look’ by Katie Peters and had students answer the question 'what are some things that people leave on altars?'. Each student was able to give an example of things left on the alter, with an example being sugar skulls. This was then transitioned into our activity where students would be able to make their own sugar skull masks!

Once they finished their skulls. we moved onto Cinco de Mayo with the book ‘Celebrating Holidays: Cinco de Mayo’ by Rachel Grack. For this book, students were asked to look for the name of the band that plays during Cinco de Mayo celebrations. After students identified these bands as Mariachi bands, they were introduced to our next activity, making guitars! These guitars were made using cardstock and strings, and students were able to decorate and assemble their guitar together. With most of our lesson being about major Mexican holidays, we had students analyze primary resources surrounding these celebrations. Each student was given a card that had either an old or a current photo of symbols/traditions and they had to find their matching pair. (e.g. old image of mariachi band matched with current mariachi band). Once they all found their pair, they went back to their seats and they had an opportunity to share a similarity and a difference that they found between the two images. The last activity that we had students do was make a mural. Each students was given a sheet of paper and had to write their name with 3-4 things they wanted to share about their culture. However, we did run out of time and were unable to tape all of the sheets together.

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