Learn About Puerto Rico: Make a Vejigante Mask

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The vejigante, pronounced ve-hee-GAN-teh is a character that represents an enemy or monster and can be seen in Puerto Rico during festivals such as Carnaval, Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol (in honor of St. James ), and other days of celebrations. The vejigante mask is known as the careta and it is usually made using papier-mâché or coconut husks and sometimes gourds. The legend of the vejigante comes from the Spanish settlers that brought over this symbol from Spain.

The Loíza vejigante masks are some of the most recognizable examples in Puerto Rican folk art. This style became popular by the late Don Castor Ayala over 60 years ago! Today, the Ayala family still makes these masks out of coconut and bamboo from their home in Loíza, in the northeast coast of Puerto Rico!

In today’s lesson, you can color your own vejigante mask also known as a careta.

Even though the masks represent a villian type of character, they are still used in playful ways and shown in bright colors throughout celebrations. Can you bring your vejigante to life using bright, fun, and playful colors?


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TT Lesson 17 Learn About Puerto Rico: Make a Vejigante Mask

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Learn About Puerto Rico: Music of Puerto Rico

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Let’s dance, Tiny Travelers! Today we will explore the rich history of Puerto Rico’s Bomba and Plena music.

Drawing inspiration from traditional African music, what’s fun about Bomba and Plena is that they are both interactive! In Bomba music, singers lead a call-and-response chorus along to the beat that the musicians make with their barrel drums known as the subidor or primo (bomba barrel or drum). The musicians also play other percussion instruments including maracas, and the cuá or fuá, two sticks that are played against a piece of wood or the barrel of the bomba drum. While Plena music has one rhythm, Bomba can have up to 16 different rhythms! Plena music tells more of a story, usually about events or times when people needed to join together to make a change.

Puerto Rico has a long history of using music as a form of storytelling. In both Bomba and Plena, you can hear songs about resistance, struggle, celebration, and joy! No matter the style, it is music that brings together the soul of the Puerto Rican people and their cultural pride for their beloved island!

Today, you can bring to life a scene of Bomba musicians and dancers with a fun coloring activity. While you color, enjoy the sound of Bomba with this song: Mayelá (bomba) by Viento De Agua. To see a video of Bomba musicians, singers, and dancers, take a look here!

Before you begin, you will need a pencil, eraser, and colored pencils or crayons.


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TT Lesson 16 Learn About Puerto Rico: Music of Puerto Rico

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Learn About Puerto Rico: Draw a Coquí Frog

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In Puerto Rico, we find a special kind of frog called the coquí, pronounced ko-kee.

Coquís are named for the loud sound the male frogs make at night. Coquís are nocturnal, which means they are most active at night. During the day, they rest in the shade under logs and rocks. Coquís are carnivores, which is a fancy word for meat-eater. They like to eat other small critters like ants, crickets, moths, spiders, snails, smaller frogs, and even lizards!!

In today’s lesson, you will learn how to draw your own coquí! Before you begin, you will need a pencil, eraser, and colored pencils or crayons.

Coquís are one of the largest frog species found in Puerto Rico!

Coquís are a beloved symbol of Puerto Rico and the Taíno culture. Legends tell of a time when the island was inhabited by millions of coquís way before humans came to the island of Puerto Rico.

Many frog types have webbed feet but not coquís! Their scientific name (Eleutherodactylus) literally translates to “free toes.”

Coquís grow to be about one to two inches long. That’s the size of two quarters side by side. So tiny but so loud when they all sing at night in the jungles of El Yunque rainforest! Check out the clip to hear the sound the male coquís make at night!


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TT Lesson 15 Learn About Puerto Rico: Draw a Coquí Frog

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Learn About Puerto Rico: Land and Water Forms

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In today’s lesson, we will continue to apply your learning about maps, geography, and land and water forms as we explore Puerto Rico.

One very important landform in Puerto Rico is the mountain range known as Cordillera Central. These incredibly lush mountains in the center of Puerto Rico run the length of the country from east to west. Bananas, pineapples, and plantains are grown throughout the region as well as coffee. The beaches and coastlines of Puerto Rico are also some of the most beautiful in the world! The important water forms include the Atlantic Ocean in the north, the Caribbean Sea in the south, and the Vieques Sound between mainland Puerto Rico and the island of Vieques in the east. A sound is a waterform that is located along a coastline and it is a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land.

Today, you will color a map of Puerto Rico. Once you’re done, follow the guide to create a 3D salt dough map of Puerto Rico as well!

Before you get started, you will need crayons or colored pencils to color the map.

First, color the physical map of Puerto Rico.

Find and circle the following water forms on the map:
1) The Atlantic Ocean
2) The Caribbean Sea
3) The Vieques Sound

Then, find and circle the following landforms:
1) Cordillera Central Mountains
2) Vieques Island
3) Culebra Island


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TT Lesson 14 Learn About Puerto Rico: Land and Water Forms

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Learn About Mexico: Mexican Hot Chocolate

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Did you know that chocolate originates from Mexico?

The Olmecs of southern Mexico were probably some of the first people to grind cacao beans to make a chocolate drink for rituals and medicine almost 4,000 years ago! Aztec and Mayan people also used chocolate. Mayans have an earth goddess and goddess of the cacao tree that they called Ixcacao pronounced like eesh-cah-cow. Can you say that? IX means ‘her’ while cacao, of course, means ‘chocolate.’ Ixcacao was often called into prayer along with the corn mother and the rain god.

In today’s lesson, get to know the different foods of Mexico with a fun coloring sheet! Then, learn how to make Mexican hot chocolate with a grown-up using our favorite recipe. Did you know that in Mexico people sometimes use this wooden whisk called a Molinillo that makes the chocolate foamy? Also, in some parts of Mexico, hot chocolate is made with water and not milk, which makes each drink taste different. Lastly, people in Mexico don’t use a lot of sugar so that you can taste a bit of the spice from the chocolate itself.


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TT Lesson 13 Learn About Mexico: Mexican Hot Chocolate

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Note to parents

Note to Grown Ups: This recipe should be done with adult supervision as it involves heating milk and chocolate on a stove top.


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Learn About Mexico: Lucha Libre

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Did you know that Mexican wrestling as we know it today, found its popularity as a sport in the early 1900s?

The origins of the freestyle wrestling form, lucha libre, which literally translates to “free fight” go all the way back to 1863. That’s over 150 years of a Mexican wrestling tradition!

Today’s activity is to create your own lucha libre mask and to color a lucha libre wrestling scene. Before you begin, grab some crayons or colored pencils and a pair of scissors to cut out your mask when you are done.


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TT Lesson 12 Learn About Mexico: Lucha Libre

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Learn about Mexico: Draw an Axolotl

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In Mexico, one of the most studied salamanders in the world are known as Axolotls.

Wild axolotls live in swampy areas of Lake Xochimilco and in the canals that flow into the southern edge of Mexico City.

Axolotls have also been known to have once lived in Lake Chalco, one of Mexico City’s five “great lakes”. This is one of the areas that the Aztecs settled. The Aztec called themselves Culhua-Mexica and they were a Nahuatl-speaking people who ruled a large empire in what we now call central and southern Mexico. The Axolotl name comes from the Nahuatl language and is pronounced Ax-oh-lot-ul. Atl means “water” and axolotl means “dog,” after the Xolotl, the canine Aztec deity.

In today’s lesson, we will learn how to draw your own Axolotl!

Before you begin, you will need a pencil, eraser, and colored pencils or crayons.

1) Did you know: Even though the Axolotl is commonly known as a “Mexican Walking Fish” it is not a fish at all. Axolotls are salamanders which is also a kind of amphibian. They are more like a cousin to a frog than they are to a fish.

2) Axolotls are carnivores known to eat worms, insect larvae, tiny shellfish known as crustaceans, and some fish.

3) Axolotls can live up to 10-15 years but are now considered to be a critically endangered species.

4) Did you know: Axolotls are neotenic salamanders, which means even as they grow older, Axolotls still look as if they are young.

5) Axolotls can regenerate (which is a fancy word to re-grow) the same limb up to 5 times!!


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TT Lesson 11 Learn about Mexico: Draw an Axolotl

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Learn About Mexico: Land and Water Forms; Intro to Spanish

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Bienvenido a Mexico, Tiny Travelers! Did you know, Mexico is located on the continent of North America?

In Mexico, they speak Spanish so let’s get to know some Spanish words with a fun video from Canticos! In “Weather the Weather” or “Jaraba Tapatío,” our learners will learn about all kinds of weather through one of Mexico’s most famous songs. Check it out now!

In today’s lesson, we will bring together some of the things you learned about maps, geography, and land and water forms as we explore Mexico. In Mexico, there are many high mountains throughout the country, vast deserts in the north, and lush green rain forests in the south and in the east.

Before you get started, you will need crayons and a pencil.

First, color the physical map of Mexico.

Next, find and circle the following water forms on the map:
1) the Gulf of Mexico
2) the Gulf of California
3) the Pacific Ocean

See if you can also find and circle the following landforms:
1) The Mexican Plateau
2) the Sonoran Desert and the Chihuahuan Desert
3) Sierra Madre Occidental, Sierra Madre Oriental, Sierra Madre del Sur, Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges
4) the Yucatan Peninsula


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TT Lesson 10 Learn About Mexico: Land and Water Forms; Intro to Spanish

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Note to parents

There are a lot of Mexico specific land and water forms to explore in this map.


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Let’s explore the countries and animals of North America, Tiny Travelers!

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Before you begin you will need crayons or colored pencils and a pencil.

First, explore the continents of North America. Take a look at the fourteen countries. See what countries you already know about and look for the names of new countries that you might just be learning about for the first time. Find their locations and when you feel ready, quiz yourself using the North America continents quiz.

When you are ready to move onto the next activity, take a look at the animals of North America map and give them some color to bring them to life!


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TT Lesson 9 Let’s explore the countries and animals of North America, Tiny Travelers!

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Note to parents

Some children will benefit from reading aloud the directions and making sure they know what each ocean is and how to color it accordingly. Of course, there can be slight variations on the colors if you do not have one of the shades of green or blue. The main idea is that children understand even though it looks like one big body of water, there are names to different oceans around the world.


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Let’s create a map of your home, Tiny Travelers!

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Before you begin you will need crayons or colored pencils, scissors, and a glue stick.

We’ll use pictures and symbols to tell a story about the people who live there and create a fun treasure hunt that you can play with other family members.

1) Start with drawing a map of your home. Check out the map examples for some inspiration!

2) Next, draw or cut out pictures and symbols to tell a story about the people who live in your home.

3) Then, add some of the “special symbols” to make your home map into a treasure map!

4) Add a map key with symbols, lines, special shapes, and colors to help readers make sense of the map.

5) You can also use some of the treasure chests or x’s provided to mark the placement of your first treasure.

6) You can make this into a game and hide objects for a treasure hunt game with family members.


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TT Lesson 8 Let’s create a map of your home, Tiny Travelers!

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Note to parents

Be sure to help children identify the locations of countries by pointing at the countries and calling out their names aloud. You can also pull out any atlases at home and check out other maps of North America online. Ask your child if there are any countries that they are just learning about and see if they can locate it on the map.


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