Once a Teacher, Always a Teacher: Day of the Dead

Silly Skeletons

for

Day of the Dead

Each year my 5th graders have a Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead celebration as close to Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 as possible. The students pick a person whose life they would like to celebrate. The families talk about the aspect of their life and what the person looked like. I have the students complete a research sheet to have all the details in one place.

We make little paper stand up skeletons for each person's life that we celebrate. The instructions were to give the person a silly hat to wear and something that they liked, such as a favorite food or candy, in their hand. You can see that the students had talked to their parents and knew about each person.

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the
Five for Friday Linky Party -

www.doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com

The students bring in a shoe box to make a small altar for the celebration.
A picture, candle, flower, and decorations are placed on a small piece of cloth used as an altar cloth.

Each child has a turn to speak about their person. I encourage them to tell a funny story about this person. This takes their minds off the fact that the person has passed on before us.

This year I worked with the Art teacher to have the students make skeleton masks or sugar skulls. In Mexico and Mexican neighborhoods in the United States, small and large skulls are made out of sugar for the Dia de los Muertos celebration. It was a great lesson in symmetry. Here are some examples of their sugar skulls. The students used construction paper, crayons, and markers.