Hola, friends! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a teacher-y post! But I’ve felt regret the last couple years to not have acknowledged one of my favorite times of the school year – Hispanic Heritage Month! Over the last few years, one of my coworkers and myself have collaborated for our junior high school Hispanic Heritage Month activities and decorations. It has been so much fun! Read on for our colorful Hispanic Heritage Month decorations ideas!
Over the years, we have unofficially become the school’s Hispanic Heritage Month committee. I am the building English as a Second Language instructional facilitator, and my Hispanic Heritage Month committee partner is the 9th-grade Spanish 1 teacher. Our principal asked us to start organizing some activities for Hispanic Heritage Month together six or seven years ago, and our efforts have grown a little bit each year. We are friends so it is fun to make plans together.
Although we change up our ideas and decorations each year, I’m going to focus today’s post on the ideas from last year as this year was one of my favorites of our Hispanic Heritage Month decorations ideas for school. Since Hispanic Heritage Month falls during a busy time – September 16-October 16, we have learned over the years that it is best to start our planning early. This year, we were able to use a flexible professional development day in the summer to begin our planning.
One of these days, I may get around to making another post with some of the school-wide activities we do.
ESL Department and Spanish Department Collaboration for Hispanic Heritage Month
Ahead of Hispanic Heritage Month, Mrs. M’s Spanish students spent a week or so studying about the origin and importance of studying Hispanic Heritage Month. They studied some famous Hispanics and the contributions that have been made to American society from Hispanic cultures around the world.
At the end of the unit, Mrs. M led her students in a Hispanic Heritage Month craft activity in which all students in all Spanish classes made paper tissue flowers. As you can imagine, this was a craft that took multiple attempts for some students! I know it was an absolute undertaking for Mrs. M to oversee 150 kids making tissue flowers. But many of the flowers turned out absolutely beautiful!
Meanwhile, my students, primarily the emerging (level 1 and 2) English Language Learners, participated by helping to decorate the common areas in the school – the office, cafeteria, and staircase areas.
They also helped us run the student parties and other student activities that I will explain more about in a different post.
Hispanic Heritage Month Decorations in the Front Office and Entrance Area
We hung a bilingual “Bienvenidos” banner at the front entrance for parents to see as they entered the doors of the school.
Once students and parents entered the front office, they were greeted by a table of authentic mola art pieces from Panama and authentic pottery from Mexico with a few paper crafts tossed around.
At the front desk, students walk up to two large white reception desks with strands of tissue paper flowers dangling down from the top. Above each desk, a strand of papel picado brought color toward the ceiling.
A small doll from Mexico and a serape bright up the desk itself.
Other touches adorned the reception area, such an iguana from Mexico and maracas from Mexico tucked into containers of pens.
Straw hats from Panama, Mexico, and Puerto Rico adorned spare areas of the room.
Cafeteria Hispanic Heritage Month Decorations
We thought it was important to give the ESL students some responsibility and autonomy in putting together some of the displays about their own cultures.
The girls loved taking over the decorating! The boys? Not so much! If you’ve ever supervised a group of young teenage boys decorating a space, you know there is a lot of tongue-biting and going back and touching up later on that goes on!
The kids hung more tissue flowers, buntings, and Hispanic Heritage Month flags around the school.
Our cafeteria employees seemed touched that we took the time to decorate the cafeteria. I even saw one of our Hispanic cafeteria employees come out with her phone and take pictures. That one observation right there made me feel like our efforts had been worth it!
Student Artwork Around the School
Our amazing art teachers developed art curriculum focused on Hispanic Heritage Month, and they hung the student sugar skull art around the school. It was such a beautiful addition to our Hispanic Heritage Month decor!
In addition to the cafeteria decorations, the librarians also put up touches of Hispanic Heritage Month decor in the library along with featured displays of books written by Hispanic authors or books celebrating Hispanic cultures.
We really do have the best time with this every year! Changing it up year and year can become challenging, but with multiple people coming together, we are able to make it happen!
I hope we gave you some inspiration for setting up your own Hispanic Heritage Month decorations at school or at your office!
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