¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!  Not a Halloween party, this Spanish-speaking cultural holiday celebration gathers family members together to remember their ancestors and loved ones who have passed on before.  It’s a time of joyful remembrances and sharing stories and traditions with family and friends.

In preparation, in our class we’ve been learning how to understand a simple pedigree chart (much like those in genealogy research) using our family members vocabulary and practicing several high-frequency verbs [hay, tengo, tiene, tienes,etc.].  Also, students learned more about their class country and its flag (and they’re earning lots of puntostoward their next fiesta).

On Friday November 2nd,  All students are encouraged to bring in a small photo [3×5, 4×6, or 5×7] of a relative or friend (or pet) that has died.   If a photo is not available, then students may also draw an image of a deceased ancestor/relative to frame. We will work on our own Día de los Muertos project in class.  We will be decorating photo mats to frame our pictures.  I’ve already shown students a model of one such photo in a decorated mat.  {Note:  No student is compelled to bring in a photo if they are too uncomfortable with this, but I genuinely desire all to participate as much as they are able.  It can be a very positive experience to share memories of those we love.}

Spanish scavenger huntSide note:

For a well-done animated cinematic look at Día de los Muertos, I recommend watching the Pixar movie Coco (and/or The Book of Life -which is a bit goofy & stylized, but fun) at home.