3 Hispanic Heritage Month Activities for Spanish Class

Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 through October 15, which means you might currently have "figure out what we're doing for Hispanic Heritage Month" somewhere on your to-do list. 🙃

You could spend your planning period opening 14 tabs and piecing together a culture activity from scratch. Or you could not do that. 😂

You don't have to create an elaborate month-long plan to incorporate Hispanic Heritage Month into your Spanish classes.

Here are 3 Hispanic Heritage Month activities you can use depending on what you want your students to learn and what level you teach.

1. Learn about famous Hispanic artists

If you teach Spanish 1, 2, or 3, a webquest is an easy way to introduce students to famous Hispanic artists and their artwork.

My Famous Hispanic Artists Webquest is a 2-day activity where students learn about 7 artists:
🎨 Diego Rivera
🎨 Diego Velázquez
🎨 El Greco
🎨 Francisco Goya
🎨 Pablo Picasso
🎨 Salvador Dalí
🎨 Joan Miró

Students research each artist's life, including when and where they lived, and look at some of their most famous artwork.

The entire webquest is in English, so you can use it with Spanish 1 students who started learning Spanish approximately 5 minutes ago. 😂

That also means you can focus on culture without trying to find readings that are comprehensible for students who only know a few weeks' worth of Spanish.

The webquest includes:
👉 paper version
👉 digital version
👉 answer key
👉 teacher's guide

So you don't have to start with "I want my students to learn about Hispanic artists" and then figure out how to turn that into an actual lesson.

Check out the Famous Hispanic Artists Webquest here.

2. Go deeper with a Hispanic art unit

If you teach Spanish 3 or above and want Hispanic art to be more than a couple-day culture activity, you can turn it into a full unit.

My Famous Hispanic Artists & Artworks Unit is an 11-day unit that starts in English and gradually moves students into discussing art entirely in Spanish.

And FYI: the Famous Hispanic Artists Webquest above is already included in this unit. So if you teach Spanish 3 and want the whole unit, I wouldn't buy the webquest separately.

Students start with the webquest to build background knowledge about famous Hispanic artists and their artwork. And then they learn the Spanish they need to actually talk about art.

The 4 lessons teach vocabulary like:
🎨 el autorretrato
🎨 el cuadro
🎨 el fondo
🎨 el primer plano
🎨 la obra de arte
🎨 el retrato
🎨 el tema
🎨 representar

Students learn how to answer questions like ¿De qué se trata? and describe the subject, style and interpretation of different artwork. Then they put everything together with a final research project.

Each student researches an assigned Hispanic artist and presents the artist and their artwork entirely in Spanish.

The 4 lessons include:
💙 lesson plans
💙 bell work
💙 animated PowerPoints
💙 vocabulary pages
💙 classwork
💙 exit tickets
💙 paper + digital versions
💙 answer keys

The final research project also includes a rubric, teacher's guide, paper and digital options and a list of 46 Hispanic artists students can research.

So instead of finding an artist activity, figuring out what Spanish vocabulary students need, creating practice and then trying to come up with some kind of final project, the whole 11-day sequence is already planned out for you.

Check out the Famous Hispanic Artists & Artworks Unit here.

3. Explore the Spanish-speaking world

Not feeling the art route? Hispanic Heritage Month is also a great opportunity for students to learn more about different Spanish-speaking countries. And not just Mexico and Spain. 😉

My Spanish-Speaking Countries Webquest Bundle includes a webquest for all 20 Spanish-speaking countries + Puerto Rico.

Each webquest gives students a structured way to learn about the country's:
🌎 flag + geography
🍽️ traditional foods
📍 tourist attractions
📚 history
💃 unique cultural features

And just like the Hispanic Artists Webquest, all of the country webquests are in English. That means they work with Spanish 1, 2, or 3 students, including beginners who don't have enough Spanish yet to independently research these topics in the target language.

There are a few different ways you could use these during Hispanic Heritage Month...

You could choose a few countries to focus on throughout the month. You could assign different countries to different students or groups so your class learns about multiple parts of the Spanish-speaking world. Or you could use one whenever you want an independent culture activity without introducing new vocabulary or grammar that day.

And then after Hispanic Heritage Month, you still have webquests for all 21 locations to use throughout the rest of the school year. They're also really handy to have sitting in your teacher toolbox as ready-to-go sub plans.

Because future-you will absolutely appreciate already having 21 of those figured out. 😉

Check out the Spanish-Speaking Countries Webquest Bundle here.

What should you teach for Hispanic Heritage Month?

You don't have to do something elaborate for Hispanic Heritage Month. 

👉 If you want an activity that works with Spanish 1, 2, or 3, start with the Famous Hispanic Artists Webquest.

👉 If you teach Spanish 3+ and want to spend a couple of weeks on Hispanic art, use the full Famous Hispanic Artists & Artworks Unit.

👉 And if you'd rather have students explore different Spanish-speaking countries and cultures, use the Spanish-Speaking Countries Webquests.

Whether you want to spend a couple of days learning about famous Hispanic artists, go deeper with a full art unit, or explore different Spanish-speaking countries, you can have something meaningful planned without spending hours figuring out what to do.

Comment below and let me know what activities you like to do during Hispanic Heritage Month and what you like to teach about!