A literature-based Mexico unit study
Updated October 2026
Navigate this page: Missions, Booklists, Cooking, Folk Music/Dance, Art Project, Games, Movie, Videos
It seems like ages ago that we celebrated our honeymoon in Mexico, picked endless shells, didn’t get seasick, hiked to a waterfall, pet a baby tiger (on a trainer’s leash)…
Free Printables
- Crayola.com’s Free printable of Mexico’s Flag and Country
- Seterra.com’s Free printable map of Central America
- Seterra.com’s Free online geography games for Central America
- We memorized all the countries of Central America with this video’s memory trick!
Missions Spotlight
- Compassion International has an interactive page for kids:
- Prayercast.com/Mexico: Prayer Points, Country Summary, Quick Facts
**parents should preview the prayercast.com video for sensitive topics that may not be age appropriate.
My Top Booklists
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The following are my favorite books for different age groups and categories.
- Preschool/Kindergarten: Off We Go to Mexico
- Early Elementary: Bravo, Tavo!
- Late Elementary/Middle: The Lightning Queen
- Middle School: Esperanza Rising
Our favorite folk tale was The Princess and the Warrior and our favorite holiday book was Nine Days to Christmas.
Mexican Food
We closed out two weeks of studying Mexico with a weekend of eating Mexican food and breaking pinatas. My favorite Mexican shredded beef recipe is the Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Beef. The kids did a great job with homemade flour tortillas to wrap everything in. The littles helped make the Mexican Hot Chocolate. I let the kids each have one cup of hot chocolate before I added cayenne. They each tried a sip with cayenne and then turned down the second serving. That’s one way to limit the hot chocolate! (There are more recipe links and pictures in Recipes by Country: Mexico.)
Here are a few other fun food ideas from Compassion International: Make a popsicle that matches the color of the Mexican flag, Spinach-Mushroom Quesadillas and Wild Mushroom Soup.
Folk Music and Dance
- A few helpful YouTube videos:
- Kaia Kids: The Music of Mexico.
- Jarana Dancers: Yucatan Mexico Folk Music
Art Project
We made piñatas, following a video tutorial. I don’t like to pop balloons, so we folded big origami cubes using large sheets of packing paper. We paper-machied those and decorated with fringed streamers (so much easier than cutting up bits of tissue paper!)
We also did some Huichol-style Folk Art with yarn. Tip: start with a SMALL design. Only one of my children was able to finish a big easter egg on an 8×11 sheet of paper, but only because I helped a lot!
Learning to blend with watercolors is one of our nature journaling goals. We practiced while following this Monarch Butterfly Five Minute Mini Watercolor Paint Tutorial.
Games
We got out “Packesel,” where you take turns balancing thin sticks on a donkey’s back
Movie!
We watched the Disney movie “Coco,” which I thought was fantastic for our Mexico unit study. There was so much detail about the Mexican celebration of Dia de los Muertos packed into an imaginative movie. Before you watch the movie, I highly recommend explaining Dia de los Muertos to the kids with one of the books (or, in our case, we had the book read to us on YouTube).
Geography YouTube Videos
- Big Life Kids Podcast, Episode 16: “Ellie & Grace Learn Life Skills in Mexico!“
- The Animated History of Mexico
- Spanish Alphabet Song for kids
- Travel Kids Mexico: Town
- Unraveling the Monarch Butterfly Migration Mystery
- Mouk cartoon, Mexico episode “Mouk: The Winter Guests“
- Mouk cartoon, Mexico episode “Mouk: Viva La Pinata“
Posts Related to Mexico Unit Study
Recommended Resources from this post
- Find the book list here:Â Amazon Store, Discover Mexico
- Find the videos here:Â YouTube Playlist: Mexico Unit Study