September 15th marks the first day of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Recognizing the importance of this month helps us to make our students of Hispanic heritage feel welcome in our classrooms. Although we recognize that maybe you do not know much about this wonderful month so we wanted to provide you with some resources for you to learn more. The National Hispanic Heritage Month website is a packed resource for those who want to learn more about this celebratory month. The website has information about historical exhibits happening, music to listen to, art and paintings to see, along with an entire page dedicated to teachers. Did you know that Hispanic Heritage Month began as a single day celebration in 1968, it wasn’t until 1988 that the celebration was extended for an entire month. For more information on the history of this month and ways to integrate this history into your curriculum this month please check out the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics article about Hispanic Heritage Month.

Now that you know a little bit more about this month, we are sure you want to bring this information into your classroom. PBS and the U.S. National Park Service put together some short videos explaining the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month. Along with these videos the National Education Association put together a wonderful resource page for bringing Hispanic Heritage Month to the classroom. Edutopia’s article Tips and Resources for Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month also provides educators with more ways to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with their students. 

Along with these resources we also wanted to provide you with a short list of books that you can read on your own, with your class, or assign as homework. The article 12 Great Books for Hispanic Heritage Month provides a list of books written by Latinx authors; these books would be best suited for educators themselves. This list Books for Hispanic Heritage Month put together by the DC Library provides an extensive list of books for all age groups from pre-k to adults. Reading Rockets also put together a list of books for children to read for Hispanic Heritage Month.

We hope that this information encourages you to learn more about Hispanic Heritage Month and to celebrate it with your students!