Cinco de Mayo will be here soon and its a great opportunity to do some fun activities with the kids as well as learn a little history! Here are some ideas for your family to celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year!
Cinco de Mayo celebrates the victory of a small Mexican Army over French forces in a battle in 1862. You can learn more about the history behind the holiday here. In the United States Cinco de Mayo is a day to celebrate Mexican heritage and pride so take this opportunity to learn some fun facts about Mexico.
Fun Facts about Mexico via randomhistory.com
- The official name of Mexico is Estados Únidos Mexicanos (United Mexican States).
- Mexico introduced chocolate, corn, and chilies to the world
- Mexico is home to a very rare rabbit called the volcano rabbit which lives near Mexican volcanoes.
- The red poinsettia (which the Aztecs called cuetlaxochitl) originated in Mexico and is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States ambassador to Mexico (in the 1820s).
- Only ten countries in the world have a larger population than Mexico’s 109,955,400 million people.
- Mexico City has the highest elevation and is oldest city in North America. It is also one of the largest cities in the world.
- One unusual Mayan weapon was a “hornet bomb,” which was an actual hornet’s nest thrown at enemies during battle.
- The Chichen Itza Pyramid in Mexico was named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.
| image via yumsugar |
One of the most fun ways to celebrate Cinco de Mayo is tasting lots of yummy Mexican food! Even the most picky of children (I know because I have one!) loves a Quesadilla!
Here are some classic and not-so-classic Mexican recipes to try:
Polvorones-Spanish Almond Cookies
Classic Quesadillas
Chicken Flautas
Sangria for Kids
Charro Beans
Mexican Fried Bananas
Crock Pot Chicken Tacos
As always, one of my favorite ways to celebrate any holiday is crafts. Here are some great craft ideas I have found to celebrate Cinco de Mayo:
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| Mexican Flag Craft via craftjr |
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| mini paper plate sombrero via Kaboose |
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| Mexican God’s Eye Craft via Kaboose |
And last but most definitely not least, what celebration would be complete without games? Here are some fun game ideas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with the kids:
Sombrero Relay Race-set up a relay race in the backyard. Place a Sombrero at one end of the yard and line children up on the opposite side. Children must run to sombrero and dance around it three times before returning to tag the next child. Play some authentic Mariachi music to make it even more fun!
CINCO- Create a Bingo-inspired game using the letters CINCO instead of BINGO. Draw numbers out of a sombrero and mark the numbers with beans instead of tokens!
Of course there is always the crowd-pleasing Pinata!
I hope these ideas inspire you to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with your children this year in some new and fun ways! Do you have any stand-by Cinco de Mayo activities? Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear your ideas!
Thanks for stopping by!
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fun! just fyi you are using a “q” in cinco for a majority of your post its actually “cinco”.
That’s what I get for writing in a rush the night before we moved!!
I had noticed that when I saw the post go live yesterday but had to wait for my internet to be hooked up at our new home this morning before I could fix it!
Thanks for letting me know!
What fun! I love this post. Pinning it. The little sombrero craft is adorable and the list of facts about Mexico is great, too. Will be sharing this with my kiddos. Thanks for linking up to Kids Co-Op.
I didn’t know much about this holiday! Thank you for this post!
Thanks for all the ideas!
This is a great post about cinco de mayo!
We’d love to see this post linked up at our Beautify It Monday link party open now!
-Four Sisters
BringingBeauty@blogspot.com