A guide for using our resources

Children will identify different family holiday traditions.

Social Studies Focus: family traditions

Simple, spectacular ideas to boost your lessons.

Paired Text: ¡Qué montón de tamales! by Gary Soto

  • When Mom's ring gets lost while making tamales, there's only one way to find it. Yes, that's right. Eating tamales!
  • This book is great for learning about holiday traditions in Latin America. It's a great conversation starter for those kids in your class with different holiday traditions.

Shared Writing: Las palabras de las fiestas

  • Together, create an anchor chart of holiday words. You can start with words from the issue, like tradición, pan de jengibre, árbol, velas, tarjetas, and regalos.
  • Invite kids to share their own traditions and add more key words to the chart, such as luces, tamales, música.

Hands-on Activity: Crea un recuerdo de las fiestas

Skill: art, social-emotional learning

Materials: mitten poem template, washable paint, markers

  • Invite kids to make a holiday gift their families will treasure! Pass out the template. If you like, mount the sheet on construction paper for durability.
  • Have kids dip their hands in washable paint and press to make handprints inside the mittens.
  • When dry, kids can decorate the mitten cuff s with crayons and markers. Finally, have them write or dictate their name and the year.