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Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! I always love scrolling through social media during this month, catching a glimpse of how other families are celebrating, and passing down their heritage to the littles in their family. We are a bicultural, Mexican-American family. And one way we love to teach our littles about their Mexican culture is through food! We eat Mexican food a lot! And as a result, most of my kids’ favorite foods are Mexican foods. However, Mexican play food is pretty hard to find up here in the Northern United States. So we got creative and started making our own Mexican play food.
Pan Dulce Mexican Play Food
What you need:
- Indoor snow balls or giant white pom-poms
- Felt
What you do:
Cut your felt into circles, the size of your pom-poms. Cut slits into the felt to look like concha crust. Then use a hot glue gun to add the felt to your pom-poms.
Empanadas
Pretend empanadas are super simple to make. Simply grab a paper plate, fold in half, and staple shut. You can play with as is, or color with a brown and yellow markers to give it a golden-baked look.
Arroz con Leche
We made an arroz con leche sensory bin by first mixing up a batch of cinnamon-scented rice. Then we added black beans for raisins, some cinnamon sticks, some scoops, and pottery.
Elote
What you need:
- toilet paper tube
- green tissue paper
- yellow paint
- white paint
- black marker
- red glitter glue
What you do:
1. Paint the toilet paper tube yellow. Let dry.
2. Paint one side of the toilet paper tube white to make crema. Let dry. We like to make one side white and one side yellow so our littles can use a plastic knife and pretend to ‘add the crema‘ by rotating the elote.
3. Using the black marker, add a grid pattern to the tube to make ‘kernels’.
4. Glue the green tissue paper to the bottom of the elote as a husk.
5. Add glitter glue ‘chile’ to the white side of the elote. Enjoy!
Tamales
Our girls had their own tamalada when we mixed up this corn masa playdough from Tinker Lab. We added some dry corn husks to the mix, and a large ola, and the girls played all afternoon making Christmas tamales.
¡Divierten!
If you’re really feeling creative, you can use what’s around your house to set up a little pananderia.
Mexican Play Food Taco Truck
Or transform a cardboard box into a Taco Truck. Let your little one’s imagination go wild.
You might also enjoy
Celebrating Latino Culture during Hispanic Heritage Month With The Best Of MKB Kids!
Hispanic Heritage Month Decorations: Beyond Tacos and Sombreros
Spanish Songs for Kids to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
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