Culture box - Mexico

We have really enjoyed looking through the first culture package we had received from a Mexican family. There was quite a lot to talk about so I covered it in two sittings. First of all we looked at the flag and there is a lovely story behind the eagle image which appears on the flag and the coins. The story goes that the ancient Mexicans were told by the Gods to build their capital in the place where they had seen an eagle eating a snake while perched on a cactus in a lake. It took 200 years to find this! 

We also did the paper craft, which involved folding and cutting tissue paper squares to make colourful segments of bunting, which are used to decorate homes and streets for festivals.

The family had sent a 1 peso coin with a printed sheet showing the other Mexican coins. We looked up the exchange rate to see how much it was worth and it was around 5p. We compared it to our 5p coin and looked at what is on the back. Our coin shows the Queen and the Mexican coin showed the eagle eating the snake. We talked about how both of these pictures are different but show something important to that country.

We looked at the rest of the contents at the weekend so that Stuart could join us. We did the 'God's Eye' craft, which is started when a child is born. More yarn is added each year until the child is 5 and then it is hung up. We have been using some Spanish greeting words and phrases from a sheet included in the box.

We decorated the kitchen with our bunting, a large Mexico flag, postcards and the God's Eye for our Mexican themed dinner of fajitas. 

Harry coloured a Dahlia picture, the national flower of Mexico.

There was a small Mexican football shirt included and some stickers, so Harry stuck one of the stickers on his 'Olympic Harry' to make himself a Mexican footballer!

He tried his first chewing gum, which is made with gum from trees in Mexico - he was not impressed!

We also found this book at the library, which we have read lots of times and it is lovely. It also includes some Spanish words and a map at the back so it was really useful to support the package.

We have really enjoyed these activities and have all learnt from them. I think Harry will always remember the story behind the flag and he actually spent a lot of time during the Olympics closing ceremony looking for the Mexican flag! I love the God's Eye craft and I think it is a really nice thing to do for a young child. It has also been fun using a new language at home.