Cinco de Mayo can be celebrated with more than just tacos and margaritas! In 2020 I was getting in a rut of crafts and games for my kids. I decided to find ideas around holidays and it reinvigorated me! For Cinco de Mayo, we did eat tacos and made lemonade fake margaritas but we also did other stuff! I decorated the house with red and green balloons for the Mexican flag and then hung up some decorations used from a taco party a few years ago. At the beginning of the day we learned the Mexican Hat Dance and then broke out the crafts!
Here are my crafts and games to turn the 5th of May into a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta!
Cactus Decorating
Pretty simple activity but it held the attention of my two year old for quite a while! The night before I drew cactus outlines on green construction paper. Then the kids used glue sticks to cover the cactus, and sprinkled rice on top to make the spikes. Was it messy? Yes!
Materials
- Construction paper
- Glue sticks
- Rice
Chili Pepper Decorating
I’ll be honest, this craft is totally an excuse to use googly eyes because my daughter is obsessed with them. But, I loved how they turned out!
I cut out a chili pepper shape and the green stem/top from construction paper. Because of the age of my kids, I started with the tops already glued on and ready. I had a pile of supplies out like markers, a variety of googly eyes, and small pom poms. When you’re done, you could attach popsicle sticks to these and use them as puppets.
Materials
- Construction paper
- Markers
- Googly Eyes
- Pom Poms
- Popsicle Sticks (optional)
Taco Topping Spinner Game
After seeing this paper/felt taco spinner game, I was inspired to make my own version. I used construction paper to make the taco shells and all the toppings. In case you haven’t noticed, I use construction paper for a lot of things!
My husband had previously created a wood spinner for a Board Game party (details to come!). So, I relabeled the sections for each of the toppings, plus a free choice and “no topping” section. The goal was to get all four toppings on your taco.
Toppings:
- Cheese – strips of yellow paper
- Lettuce – crinkle cut strips of green paper using decorative edge scissors
- Tomato – quarter circles of red paper
- Olives – circles of black paper
For added fun, my daughter came up with the idea that we would each make a picture in our taco shell using the toppings we got. My kids really liked the chance to be creative and it made the game last longer.
