The Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo is rapidly approaching and if you are like a lot of teachers, you may be looking at putting together some Cinco de Mayo lesson plans to impart some of the historical facts behind this holiday to your students. Even though the holiday originated in Mexico, it has become very popular in the United States; so well, as a matter of fact, that it is more widely and enthusiastically celebrated here than it is in Mexico! There are both historical and cultural reasons for this difference – and of course, you will want to get your students up to speed while keeping them engaged in learning a little more about Mexican and US history at the same time.

Depending on the age of your students, the activities and information you will include in your lesson plans will vary. Very young children won’t be too likely to retain all of the dates and names which relate to the history of this holiday, but you can still get them thinking about Cinco de Mayo through some fun activities such as making red, white and green tissue paper flowers, which are a popular decoration (as well as fashion accessory) worn by men and women alike in the parts of Mexico where Cinco de Mayo is celebrated. You can also use the opportunity to teach even the youngest of students a little bit of basic Spanish by making a Spanish bingo game as part of your Cinco de Mayo lesson plans.

If you’re teaching older children, then you have a lot more options available to you and while you may want to include some enjoyable activities as part of your lesson on Cinco de Mayo, you’ll definitely want to teach the history of this May 5th holiday and its context in the Maximilian Affair and how this event relates to American history as well.

As you already know, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5th, 1862. A lot of people think that the holiday is Mexico’s Independence Day, which of course, it is not – think of this as your chance to educate the next generation about the real history behind the holiday.

It is a great starting off point to teach your class some lesser known facts about the US Civil War in your Cinco de Mayo lesson plans. Your students may be intrigued to know that the 5th of May was the beginning of Mexico’s resistance to France’s invasion; resistance which kept Napoleon III’s army too busy to assist the breakaway southern states in the Civil War, with whom France was allied. The US repaid the favor following the Union victory in the Civil War, putting a naval blockade in place to prevent the French from resupplying their troops or sending reinforcements as well as sending armaments and other supplies to our allies south of the border.

Cinco de Mayo is in many ways a celebration of Mexico and the contributions that Mexican-Americans have made to our own culture, at least for those of us in the United States; and including some of these facts in your Cinco de Mayo lesson plans can add some educational value to this fun and festive day.

By: Christine Szalay Kudra

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