CINCO DE MAYO

In this post you will find suggestions for a fabuloso Cinco de Mayo!

* Presentation. Below you will find attached a powerpoint presentation that teaches the history of the Battle of Puebla.

* Choral response story.   
Suggestions: Use an overhead with little pictures of Benito, Zaragoza, Napoleon, Maximillian, Mexico and the responsive shouts.  Explain to the students that whenever they hear these characters in the story, they shout with enthusiasm the appropriate response (give a little pause to cue them).  Students could also dress as the characters in the story to lead the choral response.  Now read the story:

The story of Benito Juarez and Cinco de mayo

Once upon a time there was a young country called Mexico which was ruled by Benito Juarez. (El heroe, Ole!)  Sr. Juarez was a man who really loved his country.  Unfortunately he owed a lot of money to some European countries. 

Sr. Juarez wanted to pay the countries the money Mexico owed, but his new country didn't have a lot of money. Sr. Juarez thought and thought and finally decided to wait to pay those countries until Mexico had the money.  He postponed the debts for two years, crossed his fingers, and hoped the other countries would agree.

The countries weren't very happy about the situation. France was really upset.  The emperor of France was Louis Napoleon. (Dame dinero, dame dinero!)  Napoleon really wanted his money and didn't approve of Sr. Juarez's (El heroe, ole!) plan.  Napoleon gathered his troops together to send them over to Mexico to settle the issue.

Napoleon had a very skilled army with many sophisticated weapons.  Sr. Juarez knew he needed to prepare a defense.  He called on a young, handsome general to prepare the army, Ignacio Zaragoza. (No para! Sigue! Sigue!)  Zaragoza rallied together a mismatched army of unskilled Meztizos and Zapotec Indians called Zacapoaxtlas. The army had little experience and few weapons, but they loved Mexico and wanted to defend her.

When Napoleon’s army arrived they unprepared for the resistance they met.  Zaragoza's army put up quite a fight and defeated the army at Puebla on May 5, 1862.  Napoleon was stunned!  This raggedy little army packed quite a punch!  Zaragoza's army felt a huge amount of pride for their victory which is still honored today every 5th of May.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there.  Napoleon was only put off for a little while.  On May 8th the army fought back and defeated the Mexicans.  Napoleon established a new government in Mexico under the leadership of his relative, Maximilian of Hapsburg. (Viva Mexico!) Maximilian loved Mexico very much and wanted the country to be successful, but he had some troubles.  

 After a very shaky 5 years, Sr. Juarez returned to the capital city and regained control. Juarez then established a working government and helped build Mexico into the nation it is today.

* 5 de mayo
Cuento con elementos culturales y algunas palabras nuevas sobre como se celebra el cinco de mayo en Mexico.   Cada oración es una casilla para que los alumnos hagan sus propias

ilustraciones:

1. La gente de Mexico celebra la batalla de puebla contra los franceses, el cinco de mayo.

2. La gente va al zocalo o plaza. Los mariachis cantan rancheras y tocan guitarras.

3. La gente come tacos, baila, canta, bebe refrescos y algunas personas se pintan la cara.

4. Las familias tradicionales se quedan en sus casas. Las abuelas cocinan mole, tostadas, tortilas y tamales.

5. Las personas ponen la bandera de Mexico enfrente de sus casas.

6. Hay un desfile militar. Los soldados marchan, los tanques pasan, los aviones vuelan, las bandas tocan y la gente mira.

7. Por la noche, hay juegos pirotecnicos en las plazas. La gente los mira y se divierte. La gente grita: Viva Mexico!

* LA FIESTA

Now that your students know the history behind Cinco de Mayo, plan a fiesta to celebrate the best Cinco de Mayo ever!  For your fiesta:
* Students can create posters of Mexican art for decorations,
* Enlist volunteers, parents, community members, local restaurants to donate authentic food from Mexico 
* Organize a Cinco de Mayo parade, costumes included
* Plan games and activities related to the celebration of Cinco de Mayo 
* Decorate personal invitations and announcements for the celebration,
* Ask around in the local community for music or talented individuals to provide authentic music. 
* Create a scrapbook or portfolio that documents what  students have learned about the celebration. 

¡Viva México!

Reposted from an AWESOME language teacher, Martina Bex:

 http://martinabex.com/2015/05/03/cinco-for-el-cinco/

Here are five great Cinco de Mayo resources that I’ve found around the Web. Coming off of a lively #authres conversation during #langchat (that I read post-facto), I want to clarify what makes a ‘great resource’ in my mind:

1. It’s engaging [or it can be made engaging]

That’s it. If it’s engaging, I’ll find a way to make it comprehensible, which is what really matters. I don’t care whether a resource is authentic or not. I love authentic resources–love, love, love, love. They are powerful, they are engaging, they are real. But you know what? I also love many non-authentic resources–love, love, love, love. The definition of an authentic resource is incredibly narrow, and I think that we would be crazy to use authenticity as the criterion by which we include or exclude something for use in our classes. I think that we would be crazy to never rarely use authentic resources, and I think that we would be crazy to not ‘comprehensify’ (make comprehensible) the powerful, engaging authentic resources that we choose to use in our classes. If you’re coming to iFLTthis summer in St. Paul (you must come!), you’ll have another chance to walk with me through the three-step lesson plan that I use with all authentic resources:  Introduce – Interact – Investigate. If not, you can check out this post (and the links it contains) to find the materials from my presentation.

Here are some Cinco de Mayo resources that I’ve shared in the past:

• Cinco de Mayo Jigsaw Puzzle http://martinabex.com/2014/04/30/cinco-de-mayo-jigsaw-puzzle/
• Cinco de Mayo lesson plans for 3-4 class days (includes ready-to-go activities for some of the resources listed below) https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cultural-Activities-Cinco-de-Mayo-1223015
• “Holiday Awareness” idea from Jenny Robbins http://martinabex.com/2014/05/06/holiday-awareness-idea/
• My Cinco de Mayo board on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/martinabex/cinco-de-mayo/

And here are five Cinco de Mayo resources that I love:

1. I love this Spanish-language reading about La Batalla de Puebla, especially because it comes with audio! Although this reading is not an #authres because it was written for native speakers of English, it’s a great opportunity for students to listen to speech from a native speaker. You could print out the article and white out some of the words, creating a CLOZE passage for your students to complete as they listen. For beginning Spanish students, you could write 1-2 sentence comprehensible summaries of each paragraph and have students match the summary with the original text. For upper level classes, they could write their own summarizing paragraphs. There are zillions of possibilities!
2. This Six Degrees of Separation video shows how the history of the Piñata is connected to other countries. I love it! This authentic resource (Oui! C’est authentique!) is perfect for a MovieTalkintroduction: simply prepare for the MovieTalk by listening to the video yourself, then use MovieTalk to present the content to your students in comprehensible language. After students have a comprehensible introduction to the resource and content, then you can let them watch the video a second time using one of these Interact techniques. [For more six degrees of separation fun, check out my saber/conocer lesson plans!)
3. This Jarabe de tapatío tutorial is pretty boring and there is no music, but I love that it goes slow enough and you can see the feet clearly enough to follow along. Introduce the dance with a comprehensible description and its history in Spanish, show this video, and then play an upbeat, catchy tune for students to practice their new moves!
4. In this Cinco de Mayo infograph, students can read some fast facts about El Cinco de Mayo in Spanish without being overwhelmed by large amounts of text. Match the task to their language ability, and it makes for an easy, fast, low-prep activity to squish in on El Cinco. The infograph itself? Not engaging…but it has the potential to be engaging because it is accessible. So your challenge as a teacher is to make the activity engaging. Perhaps turn it into a competition–ask a question to partners of students and see who can find the answer first. Or use the ‘Numbered Heads Together’ structure.You’ve got options.
5. ‘La Batalla’ Trailer in HD is a great way to make the Battle of Puebla engaging to students. Let’s face it. Most of our students are not fascinated by war history. But this….now this they can get into (there is one inappropriate word in the subtitles right at the end).

Whatever you do, make sure that you take the time to personalize the content in class discussion. Remember that personalization doesn’t have to mean relating it to students’ lives; discussing students’ own ideas is personalized discussion, even if they aren’t sharing information about themselves.

Happy Cinco!

Martina