Feliz día de muertos

Last week saw Spanish students working on a variety of projects relating to the celebration of El Día de los Muertos, a celebration in honor of one's deceased family members or friends.  It is characterized by the cleaning and decorating of cemeteries and gravestones, overnight picnics in the cemetery on the nights of Novemeber 1 and 2, constructing ofrendas with items of interest/value to the deceased, decorations ( a lot of skulls and skeletons), and of course, food.  Here are some samples of what each level did last week:

Spanish 1:  After reading a short article about El Día de los Muertos, students decorated skull.  Here is what they looked like:

Spanish 2:  Spanish 2 students read the ghostly story El Misterio de la Calle Olmedo (Mystery on Elem Street), discussed the origins of this holiday and compared/contrasted it to Halloween, decorated losas sepulcrales (gravestones), wrote anuncios fúnebres (obituaries), tried Pan de Muertos (bread of the dead), and made typical skeletal toys.  Here is our "cementerio":

Spanish 3:  After watching a video about El Día de los Muertos, students made papel picado with traditonal designs for this holiday as well as paper flowers in the traditional golden color. They also wrote calaveritas--short, humorous poems on skulls, and drew calacas--skeletons doing typical, everyday activities, an art form made famous by José Guadalupe Posada.

Spanish 4:  Spanish 4 students made and decorated sugar skulls.  They also researched a famous dead Hispanic celebritty and constructed an ofrenda in his/her honor.  Here are some examples of their work: