Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the contributions that members of these communities have made to the United States and American culture. While we spend a lot of time celebrating current Hispanic pioneers whom students know and like, it’s also important to take a look back at the history makers who paved the way for their accomplishments and successes.
Today, we’re sharing two types of Hispanic Heritage Month activities: Primary sources and just-for-fun activities to help you include more historical content and diverse perspectives in your daily lessons.
Each of these primary source Hispanic Heritage Month lessons has an interactive activity from the shared Formative Library to engage students and make your lesson planning easier.
You can customize the activity templates by adjusting settings, editing existing questions, or adding content to create a more comprehensive assessment. With a Newsela Social Studies license, you can also explore interviews and documents that will help your students better understand how members of Hispanic communities have influenced American society as we know it today:
Hernán Cortés was a Spanish conquistador, best known for leading an expedition to the Aztec Empire in the 1500s and bringing large parts of present-day Mexico under Spanish control.
In 1520, Cortés wrote a letter to King Charles I of Spain, describing the geography and culture of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán.
In 1828, the Mexican government sent General Manuel Mier y Terán to investigate political and social affairs in Texas. The general reported back to Mexican leaders that a revolution was brewing.
Many of these observations served as catalysts for the Texas Revolution from 1835 to 1836, which ultimately led to Texas’ independence from Mexico.
On February 2, 1848, the Mexican-American War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Per the terms of the treaty, Mexico gave more than half of its territory to the United States, including land in present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.
Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American civil rights and labor leader. He fought for farm workers' rights, especially for child laborers who often earned less than minimum wage and worked in horrible conditions.
In 1978, Chavez gave a speech in memory of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, outlining how his thoughts and goals for Black activists mirrored those of Chavez’s United Farm Workers union. Both men fought for the rights of their people, with Chavez specifically looking to end exploitation, poverty, and toxic working conditions for migrant workers.
As a labor activist, Chavez dedicated his life to advocating for better working conditions and rights for Hispanic workers—primarily migrant farmworkers—across the southern and western United States.
In 1984, he gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum. His speech was meant to highlight the mistreatment of migrants and rally listeners around his belief that Hispanic laborers were essential to the future of the state of California.
Want some lower-stakes activities you can incorporate into your lesson plans this month? Try:
Introduce your elementary students to the basics of Hispanic Heritage Month with this fun activity. Students will watch two short videos and learn information like who this month celebrates, when it began, and some of the famous figures they can celebrate.
Help students learn how to analyze and interpret visual information with this Hispanic Heritage Month infographic activity. Students will learn about the month’s history, the differences between the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino,” the origins of Hispanic-Americans, and the influence Hispanic culture has on American culture.
Students can learn more about the life and legacy of Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Clemente. Students will watch a video about his life and career and learn about his baseball accomplishments, activism, and charity work.
The Formative Library has a variety of free, pre-made activities developed by our curriculum experts and educators like you. You can use these templates as-is or customize them to fit your instructional needs. Use the library’s sort filters to browse content by subject and grade level to find what you want.
Create your own activity if you don’t see a template that matches your instructional needs! Log in to your Formative account and choose how to customize your lesson or assessment. You can create new slides with various multimedia, including audio and video, import content from Google, or enhance a PDF or existing document.
Don’t have a Formative account yet? Sign up for Formative for free today to start creating activities for Hispanic Heritage Month and beyond!
