Discovering Mexico with Preschoolers: A Mexico Preschool Unit Theme
Mexico is fascinating to preschoolers. The bright colors, the captivating ruins, the delicious food- it’s a great country to center a preschool unit theme around. Here you will find a Montessori-inspired unit theme that introduces preschoolers to Mexico’s culture, geography, and history- all through a variety of low-prep, hands-on learning activities that can be as short or as involved as your preschooler (and you!) want them to be.
Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Anchor Text
I Live in Mexico by Chloe Perkins
Narrated by a cartoon girl, this book teaches physical geography, animals, and culture. It goes through her morning routine and highlights similarities that all kids share while emphasizing cultural differences.
What I really love is the conversational style of the book. Although it is rich in facts, the conversational style makes it accessible and engaging.
Additionally, I love how it covers Mexico’s history, including the Maya, Aztec, and Spanish colonization. It’s a great introduction to different time periods and major civilizations. Very accessible- just enough to pique their interest.
Of all of the books we used, this feels the most personal. It also goes great with the other activities that I’ve included in this preschool unit theme.
It’s available on Amazon here.
Language Activity
Learn a Handful of Spanish Words
This one feels so basic that I almost didn’t even include it, but I also feel like it’s the most real-life applicable activity on here.
We learned a handful of basic words, such as “hola,” and “gracias” and practiced saying them conversationally in our home.
But to add on an additional chance for learning, I found some free printables with with the words on them for my preschooler to color. Those extra images helped her really associate the words with their meanings. (And since we did this preschool unit as apart of National Hispanic Heritage Month in the fall, I found her a harvest themed sheet for learning “gracias”)
After she was done, she hung them up to decorate her room.
Geography Activities
I love geography and I love giving my daughter early opportunities to also fall in love with geography. I kept with the same idea here that we did with our Italy Preschool Unit because she really liked those activities:
Create a Map with Iconic Place Cards
First, I traced an outline of Mexico for her and then had her shade in the colors of green, brown, and blue on the map.
Second, I gave her a set of iconic places in Mexico cards that I had created and asked her where she thought these places were.
I loved hearing her thought process of “I bet the jungle is where I colored it green” and “I bet this beach is where I colored in the blue for water.” After she had placed the cards, she talked about where she wanted to go.
She also recognized the underwater cave from her Cave Discovery Box and got really excited.
If you want to download the Mexico place cards I created, they are available here.
Learn About the Rainforest
The rainforest is one of Mexico’s main ecosystems. Click here for a list of our favorite books about the rainforest.
History Activity
History gets a bad rap sometimes, but history can be interesting for preschoolers. Do you know what preschoolers love? Stories. And you know what history is? A story.
Preschoolers are also are natural observers. The things my daughter notices absolutely blow me away. So channel that penchant for observation into observing how history is everywhere.
To introduce Mexico’s history to my daughter, I broke it down into three VERY BROAD phases- ancient civilizations, Spanish colonization, and independence. Then I found images to correspond to these three phases and cut them out. I gave a VERY SHORT lesson where this was all I said: “A long time ago there were ancient civilizations in Mexico like the Maya. Then the Spanish came to explore the Americas and ended up colonizing Mexico. And finally, Mexico became an independent country and got to start making their own decisions.” That’s it.
Then I had her try and place the cards in the correct chronological order and place them on the correct phase of history. I asked her questions like “which buildings look older” and “what do you notice in this photo?”
It was an activity that took less than three minutes, but is laying that groundwork to give her a great framework for world history. If you want the activity I made, it’s available here for free.
Architecture Activity
Chichen Itza is perhaps the most iconic Mayan ruin- and with the step pyramid style, it’s something that preschool hands can attempt to create with a variety of materials.
We went with magnetic tiles. Did it work perfect? Nope. But we had fun while trying to build it and we talked about how neat it would be to see Chichen Itza in real life. And that’s really what counts at this age, right?
Wooden blocks and plastic duplo style blocks would probably work better, but let your preschooler use their imagination and try out different building materials!
Art and Culture Activities
Learning about Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo is an inspirational story, and her colorful paintings will be sure to capture your preschooler’s imagination. We read a short story about Frida Kahlo (this Golden Book one is highly recommended) and I showed my daughter some of her art.
Then I printed off some Frida Kahlo coloring sheets, set my girls up with paint outside, and let them create. I was amazed at how much my daughter tried to mimic the colors that Frida Kahlo herself chose.
Create Papel Picado
Papel Picado is a decorative paper craft traditional to celebrations like Cinco de Mayo. It can feature intricately cut geometric patterns that I definitely want to revisit when my daughters are older.
But for the preschool age, we kept this simple. We read a tutorial on how to make it, folded up some tissue paper, and I let my daughter practice making cuts along the seams.
As she’s currently in the phase of REALLY wanting to use scissors in EVERY SINGLE CRAFT, this one was a hit (and a great chance to work on how to hold scissors properly!)
This was the tutorial we used if you’re looking for one.
And did ours look impressive? 100% not. But did we have fun together? Yep. And did I also get to use up some of the surplus tissue paper that’s in our craft cabinet and has been making me crazy? Yes! Here’s how our very un-impressive papel picado turned out:
Sensory/Fine Motor Activities
Create a Volcano Out of Clay
Mexico has numerous volcanoes, so while teaching about the geography of Mexico, let your preschooler make a volcano out of clay. If you’re feeling really fancy, let the clay dry and then have your kid paint it with lava coming out. And if you’re feeling extra fancy, pour some baking soda in their clay volcano, add some vinegar, and watch it erupt.
Sensory Bin
If your preschooler still enjoys sensory bins, toss one together with the three major indigenous crops of Mexico: squash, beans, and corn. Commonly called the “three sisters,” these crops are key to many traditional recipes.
To make our sensory bin, I tossed in some dried beans, some dried corn kernels, and some pumpkin seeds (because I’m too lazy to dry out my own squash seeds.)
My preschooler enjoyed it, but this was also a great chance to include my toddler and get her involved in our homeschool activities.
And if your preschooler is more into sorting, this can be a fun sorting activity. Add in some utensils like scoops or tweezers to make it more challenging.
Culinary Activity
Create a Mexican Inspired Meal
This one is almost too obvious, right? Create a Mexican-inspired meal! I checked out this book from the library and we used it as inspiration. Let your preschooler dream up their own culinary creations (after all- you can’t really go wrong if the meal also includes chips and salsa, right?)
Additional Books
We had so much fun reading about Mexico during our homeschool unit that I ended up making a separate post just with our favorite books on it (it was just too much to include in this post alone)! Click on over here for a full list with our favorite board books, early readers, and nonfiction books.
Closing Thoughts
I hope you find activities in here to help introduce Mexico to your preschooler! And if you’re looking for more country studies or ways to introduce social studies to preschoolers, be sure to check out my section of the blog here.
One Comment