Hola, Readers! If you didn’t know, Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 – October 15, so I thought this would be a great time to do a blog post on some of my favorite elementary music songs to celebrate Spanish culture.
Living in Florida (and in many parts of the USA), we have a large Spanish-speaking population and the students get so much joy out of being able to share their culture during this time of year, whether it is telling the class what a word means in Spanish or sharing a song their family sings.
Multicultural Night – a short tangent about sharing cultures
One school I know does a multicultural night where student get to dress in traditional clothes, and share food and songs from their culture. I would love to start this tradition at my school as well, and thought I’d throw the idea out to you guys too.
Please share if you already do something like this and how you operate that type of thing, as I would love to have some suggestions! Okay, so short tangent thought. Now back to Hispanic Heritage Month!
Songs for Hispanic Heritage Month
Mi Cuerpo
Mi Cuerpo is a super cute song from Puerto Rico that is in my song’s music curriculum series (McGraw-Hill). It sings about the different parts of your body and how they make music (hands clap, feet stomp, etc). I love this one with my kindergarteners. It is very easy, they get to do some simple dance moves, and they can say they’ve sung in two languages! It’s great for when you are working on singing in groups. It’s kind of hard NOT to sing the song, it’s so catchy.
Mariposa
Mariposa is done to pattern of “Double Double This This” and can be done as a hand clapping game, just like “Double Double This This”. Instead of explaining the whole song and movements, let me show you. Here is an awesome site with Spanish hand clapping games including Mariposa. My second graders love the hand clapping challenge. Once we have it down, I add a B section chant:
During the B section, students must find a new partner and be ready to start the chant on here we go. We of course go over how to find a partner and what to do if you don’t have a partner when the song starts, etc. All the things you would go over to have a successful mixer activity.
Oye Como Va
Oye Como Va is a great recording to use. I use the version made famous by Santana, although I have discovered the song was originally by Tito Puente, so I learned something today. And I don’t have to worry about anything translating into inappropriate language. It is basically saying “Listen to the music. It’s fun and catchy.
I use this song with my kindergarten to identify when there is a singer and when there is NOT a singer. During the instrumental breaks, intro, etc, we move around the room and show that we understand the movement rules in music class. When Santana starts singing, we must stop and copy the steady beat. Kids love free-style dancing during the instrument breaks, and you just can’t emphasize rules and procedures enough with kinders!
Los Pollitos
Los Pollitos is a classic! It is a traditional Mexican folk song:
Los pollitos dicen. Pio! Pio! Pio!
Cuando tienen hambre. Cuando tienen frío.
It’s a short and simple song. We talk about what a pollito is (baby chick) and about the the words hambre (hungry) and frio (cold). (The song translates to basically little chicks are crying, Pio, Pio, Pio. They cry when they are hungry and they cry when they are cold).
I use this song to teach my students about same and different. I have two little baby chicks (either stuffed animals or I use those little google eyes that you can put on your hands). The students listen to the pollitos and tell me if they both sang (or chanted) the same thing or if one was different. We even learn the Spanish words (same = mismo, different = diferente).
I’ve also had the kids go beyond listening and apply their knowledge by showing that they can sing the same thing as the chick puppet (or sometimes I’ll give them a chance to experiment with improv by singing something different than the puppet).
Music from Coco
The music from Coco is super fun and a great way to talk about how the guitar is important in Hispanic music. Although the songs are not authentic folk songs, they are still good for showing the style of Mexican music. I haven’t used them yet in my classroom (except for using Proud Corazon as a showpiece), but I bet you could cook up some awesome lessons with that music!
Gloria Estefan/Turn the Beat Around
Gloria Estefan has several fun songs that use fun latin timbres and are school appropriate. I have always wanted to go something with the song Turn the Beat Around (probably something involving using percussion instruments).
So last year I took the song Turn the Beat Around and handed out small percussion. During the refrain, all students play the beat on their instruments. During the verses, they have to look at pictures of different instruments and identify the group or family they belong to. For my younger grades we identified percussion groups (metals, woods, shakers and membranes). For my older students we identified families of the orchestra.
I hope you’ve gotten some fun songs you can use in your elementary music class for Hispanic Heritage Month. If you are looking to add songs with Hispanic influence to other months of the year? You can check out my Feliz Navidad activity for Christmas time.
2 Responses
I enjoyed your Hispanic Heritage lessons!
That’s so great to hear!