Throughout the 2025-26 academic year, the UWM Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) will be releasing 9 lesson plans on Latin American and Caribbean topics, targeted to a variety of age groups and free for all educators to use and adapt.
These lesson plans were developed by undergraduate student Boston Peters in summer 2025 with a Support for Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) grant – through the UWM Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) – and supervised by CLACS Associate Director Monica VanBladel.
Both PDF and editable docx files are provided, so please adapt these however is most useful for your students. We’ve noted some areas where these lessons are likely to fit into your teaching, but please let us know (vanblade@uwm.edu) if you’ve used them elsewhere – we’d love to update our suggestions below. Enjoy!
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April 2026. The Birds of Latin America: Art and Advocacy.
Grade level: K-2, 3-5
Courses: Social Studies, Science, Music Appreciation, Art
Topics: Music, Latin American Birds, Animals in Latin America, Animal & Environmental Conservation, Conservation Fundraising, Advocacy through Art
Celebrate the birds of Latin America and the Caribbean through music, discussion, craft, and reading! Robin Perkins’s “A Guide to the Birdsong of” albums exemplify how creativity can meet advocacy while introducing students to the topic of environmental conservation. Discuss what it means to be an advocate, learn about Latin American birds through a pre-made slideshow, and complete a craft activity while listening to the Birdsong album music!
Access the 10-page lesson: PDF (includes slides) / docx (without slides)
Access the 25-slide PowerPoint: pptx
March 2026. Using Maps to Learn Puerto Rico’s History.
Grade level: 6-8
Courses: Social studies
Topics: Puerto Rico, Map Analysis, Colonization of the Caribbean
How does historical context change a map’s story? Four maps of Puerto Rico come together to highlight important historical moments in the island’s colonial history. These primary sources—paired with worksheet, timeline, and matching activities—springboard a discussion regarding Puerto Rico’s history of external control. Students will discover the narratives that maps can create and recognize how those narratives affect and are responded to by everyday people.
Download the 19-page lesson: PDF / docx
February 2026. Portrait of Tenochtitlan: Analyzing a Pre-Columbian City.
Grade level: 6-8
Courses: Social Studies, Ancient Civilizations, Urban Studies, History of Mexico
Topics: Pre-Colonial Mexico, City of Tenochtitlan, Mexico City, Comparison of Past vs. Present, Social Uses of Space, Urban Relationship to Natural Environment
With this lesson, students analyze the past and present through Thomas Kole’s “A Portrait of Tenochtitlan”—a 3D recreation of the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican city formerly situated on Lake Texcoco. Students will discover the complexity of the Aztec/Mexica empire’s capital city by discussing Tenochtitlan’s structure, society, and language before comparing it to the modern-day Valley of Mexico.
Download the 7-page lesson: PDF / docx
December 2025. Las aves de Latinoamérica.
Level: Novice, intermediate, and advanced
Courses: Spanish language, ecology, biology
Topics: color vocabulary, Latin American birds / conservation, advocacy, discussion of art in social context / biology, ecology, habitat, environment
This collection of Spanish language-learning lessons spans multiple skill levels while introducing students to Latin America’s native bird species. Inspired by Robin Perkins’ “Guide to the Birdsong of” music albums, students will practice color vocabulary with a “Guess Who?” activity, discuss advocacy and environmental conservation, and/or employ their vocabulary skills when reading descriptions of Latin American birds! Suggestions on how these lessons can be combined into a larger unit are also included.
Access the 18-page lesson: PDF / docx
November 2025. Amelio Robles Ávila: Gender Identity during the Mexican Revolution
Grade level: 9-12
Courses: Social studies, English, World history
Topics: Mexican Revolution, gender roles, gender transition
In this lesson, students read selections from the chapter “Gender and Transgender in the Mexican Revolution: the Shifting Memory of Amelio Robles” (Women Warriors and National Heroes: Global Histories, Bloomsbury Academic, 2020). Students will learn about the life of Amelio Robles Ávila, comparing his experience of the Mexican Revolution to that of the soldaderas – women soldiers central to the military effort of the Mexican Revolution. In this way, students will develop an understanding of historical gender roles and the broader social context of this key moment in world history.
Download the 15-page lesson: PDF / docx
October 2025. Lenguas indígenas de México
Grade level: intermediate-to-advanced Spanish language learners
Courses: Spanish language, social studies, geography
Topics: Indigenous Languages, Prepositions, Geography of Mexico, Mexican States
In this lesson, students will study historical maps showing the distribution of Indigenous languages in Mexico (housed at UWM’s own American Geographical Society Library) in order to describe the maps and begin to interpret them. Incorporates the practice of prepositions and some geographical terms.
Download the 18-page lesson: PDF / docx
September 2025. Los primeros: Latine Wisconsin and Milwaukee
Grade level: 9-12
Courses: Ethnic Studies, Social Studies, Civics
Topics: Wisconsin History, Local History, Immigration, Identity, Construction of Community
In this lesson, a PBS Wisconsin lecture by Prof. Sergio González (History, Marquette University) provides the basis for a student worksheet and classroom discussion.
Download the 13-page lesson: PDF / docx
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The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies is a member institution of the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP). CLASP also develops and shares a wide variety of K-12 educator resources on the CLASP website.