Last week in my Spanish 1 and 2 classes, we started talking about
Los días de los muertos. This is a Mexican holiday celebrated on November 1 and 2. On these days, families remember those who have passed on and invite their spirits back to spend time with them. They do this by creating
ofrendas or altars in their homes. These ofrendas include the favorite things of the deceased person. Candles, papel picado, sugar skulls, and flowers are also parts of the ofrenda. This is a happy holiday; a celebration of life. It isn't scary or sad, but rather a time to remember important people who have passed on.
My Spanish 2 students, with the help of my Spanish 1 students, created ofrendas for a famous, deceased, Hispanic person. The people honored included: Pancho Villa, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Roberto Clemente, Selena, Ignacio Flores, Salvador Dalí, and Celia Cruz. In groups, the Spanish 2 students created an ofrenda to be displayed. They also made a product to demonstrate that they understood not only Los días de los muertos but also the person whom they chose to honor. The final products were awesome! Some groups chose to write a paper while others created an iMovie, a Photobooth video (one is featured in this blog), a children's picture book, a radio interview or a PowerPoint to discuss the celebration and their person. The ofrendas were full of
pan de muerto, favorite foods, candles, papel picado, sugar skulls, and other things that represented the person they were honoring.
My Spanish 1 students helped with the ofrendas by creating the papel picado, sugar skulls, and flowers that were used as decorations. They then got to visit the ofrendas that were created and learned a little bit more about each individual being honored.
On Friday, November 2, the 4th graders came over from the Lower School and we taught them some more about Los días de los muertos. My 1st period Spanish 1 students helped them make sugar skulls of their own and walked them around the ofrendas. Then, my 2nd period Spanish 2 students took the 4th graders on a scavenger hunt at the Huffman, Upper School, and Middle School. Each group was looking for 10 puzzle pieces with different Días de los muertos vocabulary on them. Once they found all 10 pieces, they ran back to the Upper School and assembled the puzzle. The winning team was Knox Sirmans, Luke McDurmon, Patrick Shealy, Patrick Bollwerk, Adam Tarrant, and Biddy Braden.
Please
take a look at the gallery that I uploaded with pictures from all of these fun activities!
Thank you to all of the faculty members who volunteered to help with scavenger hunt clues and thank you to Mrs. Evans and Mr. Dacy for bringing the 4th graders over to the Upper School!
