Inside: Resources for Hispanic Heritage Month in Spanish class Latinx Heritage Month in Spanish class resources. Hispanic Heritage Month music, movies, and more for Spanish class.
Originally posted 9.12.16 by Allison Wienhold & most recently updated 9.3.24
What is Hispanic Heritage Month?
Every year Hispanic Heritage Month or Latinx Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15 – October 15. It is a time to honor, celebrate, and lift Hispanic Americans. We know that you are hopefully doing this all year, but HHM is the perfect opportunity to infuse your Spanish class with even more Hispanic culture.
Hispanic Heritage Month is especially a great time to support authentic resources from Hispanic creators. For example, here are 10 books by Latinx authors to read. Or this is a great time to invite Hispanic parents, teachers, students, and community members in to share their diverse experiences with your classes.
Here are some resources to plan activities for Hispanic Heritage Month in Spanish class.
Hispanic Heritage Month Music Madness
For the past 9 years, I have used music as my main vehicle for showing the representation of the diverse Spanish-speaking world during Hispanic Heritage Month.
Each year I have created a collection of 22 songs, each representing a Spanish-speaking country. This means there is one song for every school day of Hispanic Heritage Month. It is a great way to introduce where in the world speaks Spanish, nationalities, geography, pop culture, music genres, and fun! These editable Google music slides for Hispanic Heritage Month could be used as a Para Empezar class starter each day or as a Brain Break.
If you do not want to spread the HHM music slides throughout the whole month, it could be a stand-alone lesson for a couple of days, perfect for a substitute. You could post the slideshow on Google Classroom for students to go through and watch the videos at their own pace. They could rank the songs, color a map where their favorites are from, or create their music bracket playoff with a winner at the end. I found a lot of new artists and groups from the Spanish-speaking world while creating this I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Hispanic Heritage Music Bracket for Spanish Class
Over the years, many teachers have used this resource as a fun, competitive music bracket. Learn more about how to do that in this blog post. Over the years I have created a bracket each year. The newest version with the most diverse and up-to-date music is HHM9 for 2024. This year there is also the choice to buy the same newest music bracket in my website store.
Or, if you want enough music for every day of the year, you can get the growing bundle that currently has 11 sets of 1 song per country. Get it here.
If you participate, please post and share your bracket and tag @misclaseslocas so I can see them all!
**Update – If you teach younger students or at a more conservative school, check out the NEW YOUNG 1 song from each country instead!
Country of the day – Spanish travel videos
By request, some teachers wanted to do more to introduce each country of the day. I created a slideshow that has the country, capital, nationality, two maps, and a travel video for all 22 Spanish-speaking places. You could combine the slideshow & your song of the day slideshow to dig deeper into each place for Hispanic Heritage Month. Or if you want multiple options for each country, you could get the culture slides bundle.
Once again, If you do not want to spread it out, a slideshow of travel videos could be used as a 1-2 day lesson or sub-plan for cultural exploration. Learn more about using travel videos to teach Spanish-speaking countries.
- Newest 2024 Travel Video Slides in Spanish (or the same NEW Spanish Speaking Countries 2024 in my website store)
- New English 1 video from each country – great for ELL, culture class, or Exploratory Spanish
Films for Hispanic Heritage Month in Spanish Class
Everyone could use and deserves a little break and authentic films for Spanish class do just that. In this uncertain school year, you deserve ALL the Breaks! Input in Spanish, while learning about the diverse cultures of the Spanish world is a win-win. Learn more in Hispanic Heritage Month Movies for Spanish Class
It all depends on your goals as to what audio and subtitles you use. For upper-level classes, I like to use Spanish audio and Spanish subtitles. For novice classes, I prefer Spanish audio and English subtitles. The only times I use English audio is for culture or maybe early Exploratory class, but with using a culture-rich film. If you are looking for documentaries, check out these documentaries.
You can find more about all of these appropriate films in this blog post or my movie guide bundle here. Here are a few of my favorite appropriate films for Spanish class.
- NEW Documentary! – Going Varsity in Mariachi + Going Varsity in Mariachi blog post
- Biopic of a Mexican-American Astronaut – A Million Miles Away + Million Miles blog post
- New Resources! – McFarland USA + McFarland USA blog
- Colombia – Encanto & Encanto blog post
- Cuba – Vivo & Vivo blog post
- Mexico – NEW Chupa, El Camino de Xico + Xico blog post
- Peru – Pachamama & Pachamama blog post
- Spain – Ferdinand & Ferdinand Blog post
- Dominican Republic – Pelotero guide + Pelotero blog post
- U.S. – Selena & Selena blog post
How to Incorporate More Culture in Spanish Class
This blog post has lots of ideas for ways to incorporate more culture in Spanish class for Hispanic Heritage Month & beyond. If you are looking to diversify your definition of Latinx Heritage Month with diverse representation check out these blog posts.
- Afro-Latinx resources
- Pride in Spanish class
- Asian-Latinx Resources
- Indigenous Peoples in Spanish class
Spanish Field Trips
This new post about Spanish Field Trips would be a perfect resource for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Secondary Spanish Space – a collection of ideas
This post has many ideas for the whole month organized by music, art, culture, reading, and more.
Spanish Culture Project
If you want students to dig deeper into Hispanic Heritage Month, I have a culture project for beginning Spanish students. Also, here is a free brainstorming list of 50+ cultural topics to explore. This culture project would be a perfect activity for students to complete with a substitute while you are away at your local fall language teacher conference or an emergency sub plan.
Personally, I would do a Spanish music bracket with HHM9 for 2024 & pair it with 2024 Travel Video Slides!
How do you use Hispanic Heritage Month in your Spanish class? Please share!
