This post includes a fun hands-on art and culture activity for kids. Have you ever looked at the Mexican flag and its colors? I love the colors of Mexico! The colors are green, white, and red are vibrant and fun for kids. Cinco de Mayo provides a wonderful opportunity to work with these colors, working the senses and also provides a foray into learning about Mexican culture, history, and geography.
Study Mexico with Your Kids
What is the Meaning Behind the Colors of Mexico's Flag
- Green: represents hope for a better nation, where people join together to achieve and maintain peace between them.
- White: represents the purity (of Catholic faith).
- Red: the color of blood. With the inclusion of this color on their flag, Mexican people pay a tribute to those who died during the terrible war for independence.
Check out Mexico on a World Map
My son loves maps so pulling out the map to locate Mexico was easy. We studied the location on the continent of North America and the relationship to Central and South America. We are fortunate that his preschool teacher is from Peru and speak Spanish to them regularly. So, he understood that Mexico was a different country and that they speak Spanish.
Talk about the History of Cinco De Mayo
Cinco de Mayo means the fifth of May in Spanish. The date marks the Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla and is a holiday celebrated in parts of Mexico and the United States in honor of a military victory in 1862 over the French forces of Napoleon III.
Create a Mexican Flag with Kids
Our first hands-on activity to celebrate this lovely and profound Cinco de Mayo was to create a Mexican flag.
Materials Needed
- poster board
- green & red construction paper
- green, white, and red feathers to add some fun texture (pom poms, markers, or crayons would work well, too!)
- glue
- jumbo popsicle sticks
- print out of Mexico
- miniature flags
Steps to Making Your Mexican Flag
I grabbed a piece of poster board and green and red construction paper to outline the flag's colors.
We had some green, red and white feathers waiting around for a nice sensory tub experience. I thought they'd make a good texture for this project. You could grab pom poms or use markers and crayons to keep it extra simple (which I always like!).
I put glue into a smaller squeeze bottle easy for my almost 3-year-old to handle.
I thought jumbo popsicle sticks would make for a good flag “pole”.
I also grabbed these cute Mexican flags (typically used for food and drink) to decorate the poster board.
We squeezed glue. A lot of glue. Probably too much.
We placed feathers on the colored rectangles and squeezed more glue.
My son really wants to put glue on the top of the flag “pole” and glue the mini flags onto it. So I let him.
We proudly displayed it on our windowsill.
Thank you for choosing to visit my blog today. I hope that we inspired you!
Marnie