In my unit I use strategies in which children use puppetry and American literature in reading and analyzing ancient family traditions, their resistance to Spanish control, and their impact on the Mexican culture of today.
Friday Funtastic (a puppet) assists the children in gathering information about the home and family life in Mexico, and how the ancient customs have influenced present day Mexico. A look into the Spanish conquest will help the children see how that culture has blended into the native Indian culture. In addition, we will look at this blend and how it has affected our own culture in United States of America. A great source of information is the World Wide Web along with various other resource books where Friday is able find factual information pertinent to introducing a story in class. Books such as Today is the Day by Nancy Riecken, Shirley Climo's book, The Little Red Ant and the Great Big Crumb, and The Spirit of the Maya: A Boy Explores His People's Mysterious Past by Guy Garcia are just a few stories found in the unit.
The unit includes activities suitable for children in kindergarten through third grades with an emphasis on literacy for the first grade child. Along with reading and the language arts, the lesson plans cover curriculum areas such as math, social studies, science, music and art.
(Developed for Reading and Language Arts, grade 1; recommended for Reading and Language Arts, grade 1)
