Easy Creative Craft for Hispanic Heritage Month

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National Hispanic Heritage Month takes place September 15th through October 15th. It’s a great time to celebrate Hispanic culture in the United States! One great way to do that is to make a fun craft with students. Let’s take a look at an easy creative craft for Hispanic Heritage Month!

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Molas from Panama

Personally, I love easy crafts and art projects that allow students to be creative, without requiring a ton of materials, mess, or artistic skill from me! This easy craft for Hispanic Heritage Month ticks all those boxes as we teach students about the textile art from Panama with a short reading. Then, students get the chance to create their own with construction paper, scissors, and glue!

Click here to see more easy art projects for your Spanish classes!

This lesson would also work well as a collaboration poster for a bulletin board, having all students add elements to one big design instead of several individual intricate designs – but it’s up to you!

Lesson Plans for this Craft for Hispanic Heritage Month

As much as I love introducing students to a famous artist, famous paintings, and culture from Spanish-speaking countries around the world, I think it’s important to give them some background knowledge on the history and culture of the art forms, too! This helps them more fully appreciate and understand – all the better to celebrate el Mes de la Herencia Hispana!

Click here to download the lesson materials!

This lesson plan is simple:

Prep by printing copies of the reading: choose English, Spanish, or a simplified Spanish
Read the passage together. You can do a close reading activity, or any reading activity you’d like (here’s 17 ideas you could use)!
Show them some examples of molas in real life
Explain the craft, using the tutorial video
Students make their own version

This easy craft is a wonderful way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and brighten your room with different colors and designs!

Watch the Video Tutorial with Step-by-Step Instructions

Materials Needed

Here are the materials you need to do this simple craft:

construction paper (scraps are fine)
scissors
glue
a pencil, if you want to trace or draw out the shapes
stencils (download a set here!)

That’s it! It’s fun if the construction paper is in bold colors, but any colors you choose are fine!

Step-by-Step Instructions for this Art Project

Here is how to make these Panamanian molas with paper:

Gather your materials: colorful paper, scissors, glue, pencil, and stencils.
Choose the main element of your design: an animal, tree, flower, or another element found in nature is common. Here are stencils to help!
Trace the first layer of your main element.
Cut it out.
Layer the first element on top of a second color of construction paper and trace a shape around it that is a bit bigger than your first layer.
Cut the second layer out.
Glue the first layer onto the second layer.
Repeat this process with another color.
Attach your element to your background piece of construction paper.
Complete your design with additional elements, with an emphasis on symmetry and geometric shapes.