bicultural birthday celebrations

Photo by rahego

This whole week is dedicated to Bicultural Birthday Celebrations and group games have to be part of a good Fiesta.

The games below were contribute by Jennifer Manriquez from The Bilingual Fun Company, so you know they must be a tested hit!

La Araña

La Araña is a fun and active group game.

The game is played by a group of children ages 5 and up.

The “spider” is confined between two parallel lines on the ground, drawn about 20 feet apart. The other children all stand along one of the lines. When la araña calls out “Araña!” all of the children must cross the spider’s territory and cross the other line. Anyone the spider touches must join hands with him, becoming part of the spider. This step is repeated until all of the players have been tagged. Only the players on either end of the spider can tag others as they cross. This is a good game to use up excess energy and keep everyone busy.

Los Frijoles

Prepare a glass jar with frijoles and write the total amount down in a special envelope.

Have the guests guess how many frijoles are in a jar.  Everyone takes turns writing their guess down on a piece of paper and signing their name.  When all of the guesses have been made, read the correct number aloud.  Have a few prizes available, one for the closest answer and one for the worst answer.

Mexican Hat Dance Off

The Mexican Hat Dance or El Jarabe Tapatío is often regarded as the national dance of Mexico.  This party game is loosely based on this dance.

Place a large sombrero in the center of the floor. Ask three guests to volunteer to form a panel of judges. Ask the remaining guests to dance around the hat to vibrant music. After each dance, judges will award the dancer with a score. The dancer with the highest score wins.

Click here to download a PDF with the Fiesta Group Games activity sheet. The download will automatically start as soon as you click. Check your computer’s download folder to find the files.

Thanks to The Bilingual Fun Company for providing this activity. You can follow them on Twitter and Like their Facebook page which is always bustling with information.

Tell us, are you using and enjoying these activities? We’d love to know!

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