Dia de los Muertos en México (Day of the Dead in Mexico)

On November the 2nd the Mexicans celebrate a very special day called "The Day of the Dead". I am in a Dual Immersion School teaching Spanish and we have a lot of students from Mexico so I decided to do something special to teach different cultures around the world and how different or similar are with Halloween.
El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), a Mexican celebration, is a day to celebrate, remember and prepare special foods in honor of those who have departed. On this day in Mexico, the streets near the cemeteries are filled with decorations of papel picado , flowers, candy calaveras (skeletons and skulls), and parades.
In order to celebrate, the families make altars and place ofrendas (offerings) of food such as pan de muertos baked in shapes of skulls and figures, candles, incense, yellow marigolds known as cempazuchitl (also spelled zempasuchil) and most importantly a photo of the departed soul is placed on the altar.
 I have found a lot of activities in different pages like this one
 http://spanglishbaby.com/finds/kid-friendly-day-of-the-dead-activities-crafts/
But I found my favorite one on tpt
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Day-of-the-Dead-craftivity-348517
Here there are some children working on them:





And here there are some pictures showing the final result:









It has been a great success. All the children have been happy doing the activities and sharing their thoughts about this day. Some Mexican students have talked about what they do in their houses and they have been proud of themselves to be able to talk about their culture and traditions.

To finish the day we have watched a story on youtube explaining some of the elements and traditions they do in their country. Here you have some links (they are great stories for children)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8keGgwIp60M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XfVzpvZDWA

And if you have older students and you want to go deep in this celebration you can also watch this other video:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6qK7-_Z17c

 And a free e book in this web page...

 http://spanglishbaby.com/2013/10/free-ebook-ofrendas-celebrando-el-dia-de-muertos/

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