Cinco de Mayo Mirror Matching Activity for Preschoolers
Affiliate Disclosure: “This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using those links.”
Cinco de Mayo is a very important Mexican holiday that celebrates the victory of the Mexican Army over the French Army in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. In the United States, Americans of Mexican ancestry celebrate Cinco de Mayo to highlight their culture and experiences, but it’s also celebrated in other countries.
The Cinco de Mayo celebration can also be used as a social studies lesson for your preschoolers. You can use the information in the video below for that.
Cinco de Mayo Mirror Matching Activity
Get your preschoolers engaged in a fun and educational hands-on activity, with this FREE Cinco de Mayo Mirror Matching printable. This set includes three different pages with a total of matching cards eight pairs of matching cards.
Matching activities in general help children develop a wide range of important skills that create the foundations for later concepts. This type of activity requires that learners identify patterns, similarities, and differences, which involve visual discrimination, memory, problem-solving, one-to-one correspondence, and fine motor skills.
The mirror matching activities create a little extra challenge for children by forcing them to pay attention to shape details, since they cannot rely on colors, to be able to match the cards.
All of these skills will also help them to develop and improve their ability to differentiate between letters and numbers, which will therefore improve their literacy and math skills.
Getting the Cinco de Mayo Mirror Matching Activity Ready
To get this activity ready you only need a handful of materials which are:
- FREE printable (found below).
- Printer.
- White paper or cardstock.
- Laminator and laminating sheets.
- Scissors or a paper cutter.
Print the pages on white paper or cardstock cut them out, and laminate them for durability. Have the children match the colorful pictures with their black and white mirrors. You can also use these cards to play a memory-matching game, having the children place the cards upside down and try to find the matching pair. Just take into consideration your children’s different levels of development, and use all or fewer cards accordingly.
Books About Cinco de Mayo
Reading books is a great way to help your preschoolers understand that they are from other cultures, and 5 de Mayo is a perfect opportunity to help them know and understand a little about the Mexican Culture, where things are done differently, and traditions, beliefs, and costumes might not be the same than the one they know.
As usual, I will recommend filling out your library, centers, and book baskets to support this theme and help children embrace the Mexican Culture. Below you can find a big selection of books related to the Cinco de Mayo celebration. These books can be found at your local library, used bookstores, and on Amazon. I also added my affiliate links to every book in the list below, to make it easier for you to get the ones you want.
- Celebrating Cinco de Mayo: Fiesta Time! by Sandi Hill explains the meaning behind this celebration.
- Cinco de Mayo Book for Beginning Readers by Ella May Woodman. This rhyming reader retells the historical significance of this Mexican holiday and teaches about the history behind the events celebrated in Mexico and by many people in the United States on May 5.
- Cinco de Mayo by Emma Carlson Berne. This fun book has your children sing along while exploring this holiday and includes online music access.
- Marco’s Cinco de Mayo by Lisa Bullard. Marco loves the food, parades, and fun of Cinco de Mayo. This year he’s one of the dancers. As he listens to the mariachi music, Marco thinks of the brave Mexicans at the first Cinco de Mayo. This book helps you find out the different things people do to celebrate this holiday!
- Cinco de Mouse-O by Judy Cox. This cute book talks about the adventure of a mouse that follows his nose to a Cinco the Mayo festival. Sprinkled with a few words in Spanish, this is a great read-aloud. The art is appealing kid-friendly and filled with energy.
Pin It For Later
If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin this to one of your boards on Pinterest.
Don’t forget to grab your FREE Cinco de Mayo Mirror Matching activity below. Just type your email for an immediate download. It will subscribe you to my weekly newsletter, where you are going to receive freebies every time.
I hope you and your preschoolers enjoy this activity and have tons of fun learning about Cinco de Mayo.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. Please let me know if this activity works for you, and if you would like to see an article or a printable about how to make something specific, please let me know and I will try my best to create it for you. My goal is to help you in any way I can and I don’t like anything better than to post something that you might find useful.
