How to Host a Children's Hispanic Heritage Month Party

The following is a guest post by the remarkable Frances Evans from Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes.

This post contains affiliate links. 

Hispanic Heritage Month is by far our favorite month of the year. It always runs from September 15 through October 15. 

Although it initially started as a Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon B. Johnson back in 1968, it wasn't until 1988 that President Ronald Reagan extended it to a month-long celebration. 

¡Enhorabuena! 

Across the nation you'll find many events celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. During these 30 days we recognize the contributions of Hispanic Americans and celebrate our heritage and culture.

Nevertheless, there are many areas and schools that don't celebrate this month. I live in small, Southern town and guess what? No one knows about HHM! I've taken it upon myself to educate others, especially young minds.  Educating children and adults alike, helps break barriers and exposes them to a culture unbeknownst to them.

Whether you live in an area where celebrating this month is huge, or you live in a small community that doesn't; you can always plan to host your very own Children's Hispanic Heritage Month Party!

This is my second year partnering up with our local library! 

How to Prepare for your Children's Hispanic Heritage Month Party

First, you have some decisions to make. Do you want to: 

1. host a party in your child's classroom, 
2. simply invite your child's friends over to your house, or 
3. do you want to go above and beyond and host a party for your community? 

I've actually done all three! For the first one, you'd need to coordinate with your child's teacher. To throw a party in our community, I presented my idea to the director of our local library, and this is my second year hosting!

The ideas below can be adjusted to fit your needs.  This is simply an outline of ideas and suggestions:  

• Where and who is the party for? School, home, or community? 

• Decide on a date and time between September 15 and October 15.

• Make a list of the food you want to serve. Simple Hispanic finger foods are best. Possible dishes include:   
  
  
• Fresh fruit sprinkled with Tajín. 
• Spread refried beans and crumble queso fresco over a tostada (corn tortilla). 
• Empanadas (you can buy these at a Hispanic bodega). 
• Guacamole and salsa with chips (these are a hit!) 
• Churros (you can buy these at a taquería). 
• Taco bar with all the fixings. 
• Variety of Mexican breads such as conchas, cocoles, novias, or puerquitos (you can buy these at a Mexican panadería "bakery store"). 
• Beverages you can purchase: some Goya brand juice such as mango, maracuya (parcha/passion fruit) and many other flavors. 

• Music 
• Lucky Diaz 
• Uno, Dos, Tres Andrés
• Nathalia
• Mister G

• Books
  Remember, what I said about educating? I always love to start a HHM party with a Latino children's book, such as...
• Celia Cruz Queen of Salsa
• Tito Puente Mambo King 
• Frida 
• Diego Rivera: His World and Ours
• Pablo Neruda Poet of the People 
• My Name is Gabriela/Me llamo Gabriela
• Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx
• Frida y Diego en el país de las calaveras 

• Crafts
• Ojo de dios 
• Maracas 
• Papel picado 
• Mexican tissue paper flowers 

• Games 
• Guess the name of a Hispanic country's flag. This is fun because there are some flags that look alike! 
• Lotería is a traditional game! Much better than your regular bingo cards. 
• Role-play with the Hispanics in History Character Crowns or have a parade! 

If you need more Hispanic Heritage Month resources, you can find them right here on MommyMaestra. I hope you have fun planning and hosting your Children's Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.  

Let's get this party started! ¡A celebrar el Mes de la Herencia Hispana! 

Other Posts You May Enjoy

• Lesson Plans and Activities for Hispanic Heritage Month
  
  
• Printable Lessons and Activities to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
  
  
• Latinos in History Your Children Should Know
  
  
• Connecting to Our Hispanic Heritage through Online Classes
  
  
• Passing on My Bolivian Heritage through Dance
  
  
• Celebrating Hispanic Heritage With My Kids

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Frances is a part-time blogger, mommy and wife of a beautiful multicultural familia. Shortly before her child turned 4 years old, she started blogging about discovering the world through her son's eyes, hence the name of her blog. She loves doing things with him, and became passionate about teaching him to be bilingual and to identify with his multicultural identity. She writes about heritage, bilingualism, multicultural children's book, and global culture education with lots of hands-on activities and language learning ideas for kids. 

She can be found musing at her blog Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes or on Instagram, her new fave social media platform. 

Free Download: Alphabet Hangman in Spanish

As promised, I'm delighted to share a second freebie this month from our sponsor, Spanish for You!  We are so grateful to them for the excellent downloads that they offer MommyMaestra readers every month. I really hope that if you have a middle schooler who is learning Spanish, that you consider purchasing some of their excellent materials, most of which are available for immediate download from their website.

Today's download is a 3-page activity to help your child/student learn the Spanish alphabet. Help them learn not only how to pronounce letters in Spanish, but how to spell Spanish words! It includes a pronunciation guide of the alphabet, directions for playing Hangman in Spanish, and an audio file. I love that you can use this game over and over as your child's vocabulary grows.

Click here to download this file

If this is your first time here, you can find other free samples from Spanish for You! here. There are some fantastic downloads of games and activities for you and your family to enjoy. If you enjoy this activity, be sure to visit the Spanish for You! website where you'll find tons of additional resources for you to help your young Spanish learner!

Exploring Spain: A Printable Coloring Page for Hispanic Heritage Month

Today, Hispanic Heritage Month officially starts. Personally, I feel like every month is Hispanic Heritage Month - in my house anyway. None the less, there's no other time of the year when I can find quite as much amazing content centered around inspiring Hispanics and the Hispanic culture. And it's my opportunity to share as well. The topic for today's post is "Exploring Spain" and you can scroll down for a printable coloring page.

I absolutely love reading about the courageous, ingenious, persevering men and women who weren't afraid to follow their dreams (or maybe they were, but did it anyway) and left their mark on history with their creativity and ideas.

This post contains affiliate links.

Over the next few weeks, I have a series of guest posts by some amazing bloggers who were willing to share their experiences and knowledge. You'll learn how to host your own Hispanic Heritage Month party for kids and how to introduce Tomás Rivera to high schoolers. You'll also hear about one non-Latino family's successful experience with their children's Spanish-immersion education. So I hope you'll follow along!

To start things off, I'm happy to be participating a blog hop celebrating Hispanic Heritage. Yesterday, my friend Silvia at Mama Latina Tips celebrated Mexico by sharing a delicious recipe for tacos al pastor. I can't wait to try and make it on my own.

I've often talked about my Mexican heritage, but I realized that I don't often talk about my Spanish heritage. For those of you who don't know, my dad and his side of the family live in Spain. It is a precious part of me that I treasure always. As a child, I spent many summers there with my father. And I desperately want my children to have the experience in their childhood of being surrounding by their Spanish roots. I want them to have the opportunity to wake up to the smell of fresh churros for breakfast made by the abuelas in the plaza. I want them to hear the beautiful songs of the canaries that everyone hangs outside their doors, lining the streets with their heartfelt canto. I want them to run around the streets with the other children and feel the smooth cobblestones beneath their feet. I want them to hear my family speaking in their rapid, Castilian Spanish, and experience being kissed on both cheeks every time they meet someone. Mostly I want them to spend time with my dad, who has a great sense of humor and is eager to share his life with my kids.

I haven't been able to visit them for the last 11 years and I miss them so much. Even though we keep in touch on a regular basis through Facebook, my dad has never met my son. This year, my cousin is getting married and my husband has a conference in Europe, so we're going to be taking advantage of the opportunity to take our kids to meet my family in Spain. I can hardly wait. I know they are going to have an incredible experience. My kids have been working hard on their Spanish in preparation.

Here are some of the other resources we've been using to learn about Spain: 

• Don Quixote retold by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Chris Riddell. We've been reading this aloud during our school lessons and it is absolutely hilarious. I love Riddell's illustrations and this easy-to-read version for kids. 
• ¡Olé¡ Flamenco by George Ancona
• Getting to Know Spain and Spanish by Janet de Saules

Books about Spain

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson

Spain For Kids: People, Places and Cultures by Baby Professor

Mission Barcelona: A Scavenger Hunt Adventure by Catherine Aragon

Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Victoria Rodriguez and Julie Paschkis

Let's Cook Spanish, A Family Cookbook: Vamos a Cocinar Espanol, Recetas Para Toda la Familia by Gabriela Llamas

Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! by Jonah Winter and Kevin Hawkes

Dover Masterworks: Color Your Own Spanish Masters Paintings by Marty Noble (shown above)

Websites for kids about Spain

• Spain - National Geographic Kids
• Kids-World-Travel-Guide - Spain
• Multicultural Kids: Spain

Videos about Spain

A few fun videos that your students/children may enjoy watching.

Spain Song | Learn Facts About Spain the Musical Way:

SPAIN! - Mini Fantastic Facts

Free download: Spain Coloring Activity  

To celebrate, I want to share this printable coloring activity with you. Available in English or Spanish, it's simple and fun. Just have your kids read about a person, place, or thing related to Spain, then have them find it on the map and color it in!

Click here to download this file

You may also like:

• Air Fryer Churros Recipe
  
  
• 5 Resources for Studying Spain in your Homeschool
  
  
• Flamenco Lesson Plans, Activities, and More
  
  
• Online Flamenco Dance Classes for Kids
  
  
• The Three Golden Oranges
  
  
• Dover Masterworks: Color Your Own Spanish Masters Paintings

Weird but True! Live Facebook Event to Celebrate New TV Series

When my son turned 8 years old, someone gave him a boxed set of Weird But True! books from National Geographic Kids. For weeks after that, he would come up to us and say things like, "Did you know a piece of cake more than 4,000 years old was found in a tomb in Egypt?" or "Did you know that newborn babies are color-blind?" The books started out in the car and he would pull them out as soon as we climbed in to go somewhere and start reading. But they eventually made their way to his bedroom where they became part of his bedtime reading routine. Even after he had finished reading them, he'd start over with the first book because the facts inside were so crazy that he was just fascinated. That was two years ago, but he still pulls those books out and reads through them from time to time.

Is your child intrigued by crazy trivia? Do weird facts amuse them? Well, mark your calendars because tomorrow, September 14th at 11:30 a.m. ET, National Geographic Kids is hosting a Facebook Live! event to celebrate the launching of their new TV series based on their bestselling book series, Weird But True! It officially premieres this week on TV (check your FOX network).

Both my kids and I will be watching the FB Live event because (as I mentioned) they are voraciously addicted to weird trivia. They love to tell their friends and family (really, anyone who'll listen) about things that will blow their mind away.

Hosted by a brother and sister team, Charlie and Kirby Engelman, the TV series will investigate the fun, strange and surprising ways our world works. From exploring shipwrecks to discovering caves to hunting meteorites, your kids will love the adventures that Charlie and Kirby take you on. Each episode includes a craft and an interview with an expert. Charlie says that meeting these experts and seeing how passionate they are about the subjects they study and their dedication has made him appreciate the uniqueness of people.

Charlie says that his favorite wild but true facts are the ones about everyday things that you never knew, such as how peanuts aren't really nuts. The biggest takeaway he wants for his young audience is for them to be curious about the world and to not be afraid to go out and find the answers to the questions they have about our world and how it works.

On tomorrow's Fb Live event, Charlie will attempt to demonstrate roughly 25 of our wackiest, most visually impressive Weird But True! facts. You can watch and ask questions. 

Get your kids and watch a trailer for the new series here on the WBT! website.

Weird But True! has been around for a long time. NGK staff has been building their database of weird facts for the last 12 years! Here are just a few of the facts your kids will discover if they read the books, download the app, watch the show, or listen to the new radio program:

Disclaimer: I'm a National Geographic Kids Insider which allows me early access to information to share with my readers. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my own.

40 Ways to Create a Multicultural Homeschool

My dear friend Leanna, founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs, is celebrating her 40th birthday this month. And to celebrate, many of us are sharing special posts dedicated to the topic of "40 Favorite Things." I decided to highlight 40 ways to create a multicultural homeschool.

"How is this different from any other homeschool?" you might ask. Well, I'm a parent who is trying very hard to raise global citizens who understand our interconnectedness with others and are able to communicate with anyone. To do so, I go to great lengths to ensure that our homeschool lessons are preparing my kids through exposure to multicultural resources.

The most important thing I do is make "World Cultures" an actual subject that we study weekly, sometimes daily, in our homeschool lessons. It goes hand in hand with our geography studies. By making it an actual subject, I'm reminded to actively search out resources to help my children travel the world from our home classroom.

Below are my favorite tools, materials, and other resources for creating our own multicultural classroom at home.

Study World Cultures

First and foremost, in order to understand other cultures, it's important to study them. It appalls me that traditional schools across the country are banning heritage study courses because doing so causes three things to happen:

• It perpetuates stereotypes rather than destroying them. This leads to ignorance, fear, and racism.
• It surpresses minority students from different backgrounds, denying them the opportunity to learn about their own heritage and the important contributions that their culture has had on U.S. history.
• It leads to ethnocentrism, or the belief that one's own culture is superior to others; and along the same lines, that other cultures are inferior or less than our own.
• It dooms us to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Luckily, it is easy to explore culture as part of your homeschool/afterschool curriculum. I wrote a post a few years ago with the steps you should take to do so. Here are some of the online resources I highly recommend you use. (You can also download my printable for free from Multicultural Kid Blogs, which has all the resources listed and hyperlinked.)

1. MulticulturalKidBlogs.com
2. National Geographic Kids: Explore the World!
3. Time for Kids: Around the World
4. Kid World Citizen

Read

Reading aloud diverse books is one of the top ways to explore world cultures. I'm talking authentic literature written by multicultural authors, NOT books written about other cultures (sorry!!). It's just that one simply cannot replace authentic experiences or replicate another person's perspective with complete accuracy. If I want to learn about Peru, then who better to explain the country than a native author or one of Peruvian descent? Here are some examples of remarkable books for exploring world cultures.

5. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (China)
6. Under the Royal Palms by Alma Flor Ada (Cuba)
7. My Place by Nadia Wheatley, Donna Rawlins (Australia)
8. El Zipitio by Jorge Argueta (El Salvador)

Watch

Sometimes we take a couch vacation and travel the world virtually through excellent programming. I love documentaries that are well done, introducing viewers to some of the most remarkable sites, people, and traditions. These are some of our favorite resources:

9.   Nature
10. Kidflix Global
11. Families of the World
12. David Yetman
13. Globe Trekker 

Travel

Of course, nothing beats traveling the world. We love to study maps, and geography is an important part of our lesson plans. And maps are even more fun when studied while we are actually en route to our destination!

And don't forget to collect souvenirs on your trip to bring back and decorate your home/classroom. Those mementos help to bring back great memories and make excellent conversation starters or writing prompts.

14. The Lonely Planet Kids Travel Book: Mind-Blowing Stuff on Every Country in the World
15. Catherine Aragon's Scavenger Hunt Adventures
16. FlyingKids' Travel Guides
17. Barefoot Books World Atlas

Speak

It's almost impossible to become truly fluent in another language without learning about the culture it comes from. Learning a foreign language leads to many opportunities that most monolingual families can't begin to imagine.

18. Rosetta Stone
19. PetraLingua
20. Duolingo
21. Cooking with Languages

Crafts

Children seem to retain information best when they are actively learning and creating. I love tying in crafts to help my kids study new cultures and to reinforce ideas/concepts we learn in class.

22. Multicultural Kid Blogs has the most diverse and best quality collection of tutorials for creating arts and crafts from around the world.

23. Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Jean Potter

Music

Get those kids moving! There are SO many wonderful albums on world music available it would be impossible for me to list them all here, but here are a few favorites:

24. Daria World Music for Children: website

25. Daria World Music for Children: app

26. 10 Musical Crafts to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage

27. Music on Kid World Citizen

28. Kids World Party CD

Myths & Legends

One excellent way to explore a culture is to read about its myths and folklore; they help us to understand the perspective of the people who create them.

29. Usborne's Stories from Around the World 

30. African Tales

31. Golden Tales: Myths, Legends, and Folktales from Latin America

32. Treasury of Chinese Folk Tales: Beloved Myths and Legends from the Middle Kingdom

33. Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World

Food

Yum! I can't think of a better way to explore a culture than with my stomach! Actually, this is a really fun, hands-on activity for students. It not only explores a culture, but it reinforces skills in math and science, too.

34. Pint Size Gourmets

35. Global Table Adventure

36. The International Cookbook for Kids

37. MKB's cooking section

38. Kids Around the World Cook!: The Best Foods and Recipes from Many Lands

Apps

Of course, there are also some excellent apps to help your child explore the world. Here are a few exceptional ones:

39. Whole Wide World by Fingerprint
40. Kids World Cultures by Planet Factory Interactive

 

 To celebrate her 40th birthday, Leanna from All Done Monkey has organized a virtual party, where each blogger shares her list of 40 favorite things! (Thanks to the Piri-Piri Lexicon for designing this beautiful series button!)

All Done Monkey: 40 Ways to Celebrate Turning 40 

The Piri-Piri Lexicon: 40 Tips for Parents of Bilingual Children

Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes: 40 Things to Do with Kids in Puerto Rico

Play Dough & Popsicles: 40 Paper Plate Crafts for Kids

Hispanic Mama: Top 40 Children's Picture Books to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Pura Vida Moms: 40 Best Cupcake Recipes

Globe Trottin' Kids: 40 Ways to Go Global in the Elementary Classroom

Spanglish Monkey: 40 Dishes from Around the World You Should Try

Peakle Pie: 40 Free Family Fun Things to Make and Do

Witty Hoots: 40 Fabulous Books for Kids of All Ages

MommyMaestra: 40 Ways to Create a Multicultural Homeschool

MarocMama: 40 Things to Do in Morocco You Haven't Thought Of!

Multilingual Parenting: 40 Ways to Motivate Bilingual Children to Speak the Minority Language

Creative World of Varya: 40 Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving to China

Pack-n-Go Girls: 40 Fabulous Travel Tips

Resources for Boosting Spanish Vocabulary in School Subjects

The following is a product review by homeschooling mom, Mireya Marroquin Dunn.

Gracias, MommyMaestra for all the valuable resources you provide on your blog and other social media sites.

Some of your followers just started back to school or homeschool again with their kids, and others are just about to start in the coming weeks. Over the summer, I found a fabulous site that you can use to supplement your child's curriculum with bilingual vocabulary words in subjects other than Language Arts in English or in Español.  Most of us are looking for curricula in Spanish, and MommyMaestra has shared with us great links to Spanish curricula programs that teach Spanish. However, I was not seeing much on the subjects like Science, Math, Social Studies, etc.

[Editor's note: You can actually find resources for studying specific subjects in Spanish on my(MommyMaestra's) Master List of Spanish Curricula.]

Over the summer, I came upon a website called "Mr. Elementary". He has a TPT store and blog. An elementary school teacher, Mr. Elementary has found a way to help his students learn core material topics that are taught throughout the year (vocabulary words) that helps boost comprehension and build confidence.  Why not learn them using trading cards and wall picture cards?  He offers them in an array of topic materials: (Science) the moon phases, the water cycle, simple machines, inventors & scientist: (Math) geometry shapes, fractions, money, place values; (Social Studies) like map skills, communities and conflict and resolution, and many others. Since he had several students that were ESL or ELL, he wanted them to learn and comprehend the use of these vocabulary words. The best part is that these cards are in SPANISH for FREE when you purchase the English version. So your kids can learn them in both languages.  Mr. Elementary offers these topics individually or in a bundle pack to pass on more savings to you.

I started to use the Scientific Tools vocabulary cards (tarjetas de herramientas cientificas), to introduce my teenage son to these Spanish words.  Since he is required to learn biology and a foreign language (2 yrs of the same language), he chose Spanish to earn his high-school credit to graduate. So I thought, why not learn Spanish vocabulary, too? This would give him a boost with his Spanish comprehension.

The cards can be printed on cardstock or copy paper.  You can also print a larger (wall) size version.  I will have them taped to my kitchen wall for a few weeks as we learn about the material.  The colored images are nice and colorful, easy to understand with a brief definition & a sentence, and you can print on the back of the pictured vocabulary trading card.  You also get blank cards so your students/kids can draw their own images and write their own definitions.  These cards can be played as a game or used as a great way to quiz each other.  You can keep them in a nice card box using the fun template that comes included in the download, plus he provides a trading card manual with 15 pages of tips and ideas on how to use these trading cards in your classroom or home.

I am looking forward to getting more topics that my son can relate to his biology class or other subjects while incorporating new Spanish vocabulary words.  It's a plus for me as well.  Since my own education took place here in the United States and I only spoke Spanish at home, I never learned many of these Spanish vocabulary words as I was growing up.  In my opinion, using these bilingual vocabulary trading cards is a great value to your classroom or home, especially since they cover topics that your students/children need to learn throughout the school year.

Gracias por sus atenciones,

Mireya Marroquin Martinez Dunn

Hispanics in History Character Crowns

Are you looking for fun games to play during Hispanic Heritage Month? What about playing Who Am I? using my new printable Hispanics in History Character Crowns?

Available in English or Spanish, this set features 30 influential Hispanics in History:

• Cesar Chavez
• Dolores Huerta
• Sonia Sotomayor
• Ellen Ochoa
• Pablo Picasso
• Tito Puente
• Celia Cruz
• Roberto Clemente
• Rita Moreno
• Frida Kahlo
• Dara Torres
• Mario José Molina
• Diego Rivera
• Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Sylvia Mendez
• Salvador Dalí
• Pura Belpré
• Linda Ronstadt
• Carolina Herrera
• Isabel Allende
• Miguel de Cervantes
• Carlos Santana
• Sammy Sosa
• Tomás Rivera
• Plácido Domingo
• Rafael Nadal
• Sandra Cisneros
• Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
• Bernardo de Galvéz
• Sonia Manzano

Each crown comes with a fact sheet and extension strips for making the crown. Directions for assembly and instructions on different ways to play the game, as well as different ways to use the crowns are included. 

You can find the English version of my crowns here: http://bit.ly/2bVtVG1

Or you can find the Spanish version here: http://bit.ly/2bV5Blc

(If anyone needs a combo set, please let me know before the 19th, and I'll put one together for you.)

Enjoy!!

Ruff Ruffman in Español!

My kids have always loved watching Ruff Ruffman: Humble Media Genius. The show is fast-paced, funny, and engagine. But I think that what they like best is watching the kids on the show compete to complete fun projects. The show now has a fully-animated online verion with Ruff sharing tips to keep kids safe online.

A week or two ago, I was contacted by Bill Shribman, who produces the free, online series about media and technology. He told me that they have just created SPANISH versions of their shows, including the animations and songs!

If you're interested in sharing these with your children or students, you can find the Spanish versions here on PBSKIDS.org, or on their YouTube channel.

They are short snippets that are super cute and share things like getting the most out of the internet, how ads work, how search engines work, and more.

Here's a sample video: 

Dr. Bonyfide: A Fun Way to Learn the Skeletal System

I haven't shared a list of the curricula that we're using this year in our homeschool. As usual, I have not used a single curriculum but instead have shopped around for each subject. This helps me use the best resources for each subject for each child. Sometimes I use the same curriculum for both kids, and sometimes they each get their own.

One of the most fun resources that we're using this year as part of our homeschool science studies is the Dr. Bonyfide series. Have you heard of it?

It first caught my eye because it reminded me in of a calavera. (My mind runs that way.) And I thought the books looked super cute. I thought it would be a resource that I could use with both of my children at the same time (which is always a plus in my book).

So I asked if I could review the series and luckily, the great folks at Educents said "Sure!"

Dr. Bonyfide has been such a fun experience in our school that I wanted to be sure you all knew about it. I wrote down how we use it in our lessons and shared some of the awesome things you'll find inside this series. It is empowering for young minds and hearts, something that is not always easy to come by in a curriculum.

If you think this would be a great addition to your homeschool or afterschool studies, check out my review.

10 Musical Crafts to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage from Daria Music

Hispanic Heritage Month starts this month! And I'm delighted to share with you this wonderful resource from Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou. You may remember my review of her wonderful app World Music for Kids with Daria Music earlier this year. And if you've never visited her website, you must do so today! It's perfect for exploring world music as a family or classroom.

She also has TONS of excellent products available on TpT, like this one.

If you've already learned about famous Hispanics and you're looking for a unique way to explore Hispanic heritage, 10 Musical Crafts to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage has 25 pages of activities for your child/student to enjoy. From Spain to Peru, your child will learn about instruments like the quijada and el cajón. Your child might read about the history of a particular instrument, or she may create her own similar instrument out of household items. Daria has even included beautiful coloring pages.

I love that Daria includes not just the history of the instrument, but also simple instructions on how to play it. I found these reading passages fascinating. My kids and I really enjoyed learning about instruments that we've never seen - or heard of - before. 

The activities are great for developing a child's imagination and creativity. And the fact that a student can actually play their instrument when they finish is, of course, rewarding.

Overall, this is a really high-quality resource that reflects Daria's extensive knowledge of world music.

If you'd like to purchase this excellent eBook for your child, homeschool, or classroom, visit Daria's TpT shop, Daria Music. While you're there, explore the dozens of other excellent downloads she's carefully and knowledgeably created - you have more than 100 from which to choose!

Free Download: Back-to-School Sentence Activity & Free Song

Last month was so busy, I didn't get a chance to post this freebie from our sponsor, Spanish for You!  So this month, you'll hopefully get two awesome vocabulary-boosting downloads from them. Starting with this one!

This 5-page activity is a mini-lesson on making sentences using back-to-school vocabulary. It comes with a worksheet, sentence cards, and audio file. They teach the students how to build sentences in Spanish and I love that there is the opportunity of endless combinations using the vocabulary cards.

Click here to download this file

In addition, to celebrate the new school year, Spanish for You! is offering a special discount to MommyMaestra readers! 

Now through September 15th, you can get a free song with every purchase you make. Simply enter the discount code FIESTASONG when you checkout. They now have 10 themed songs and more in the works. They can be found here.  They can be used in conjunction with the Spanish for You! curriculum or with thematic units or by anyone whose children are bilingual.

If this is your first time here, you can find other free samples from Spanish for You! here. There are some fantastic downloads of games and activities for you and your family to enjoy. If you enjoy this activity, be sure to visit the Spanish for You! website where you'll find tons of additional resources for you to help your young Spanish learner!

Help Boost Your Child's Math Skills with YASH {Giveaway}

I'm super excited that I have this opportunity to offer this great giveaway thanks to YASH Math Adventure! If your child is struggling to learn his or her addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, then this wonderful little app is a good way to help them out.

My son has been struggling with subtraction and I've found this app to be a great way to help him practice. I think it all boils down to motivation. Let's face it: Worksheets aren't very motivating. But if you get to play an adventure game, suddenly he doesn't mind honing his subtraction skills.

You can read my full review of this app here. There isn't very much text, but I just want to remind you that it is available in Spanish, too!

The Giveaway

The awesome people at YASH have offered to give 10 (TEN!) MommyMaestra Readers their awesome app FOR FREE! Note: The redemption codes are for ANDROID tablets and phones. 

To enter to win, simply use the Rafflecopter below!

¡Buena suerte!


a Rafflecopter giveaway