Dia de los Muertos: Fifth Grade Tin Ornaments

This project goes waaaaaaay back to the days of my undergrad back at EIU.  I remember attending a workshop at the Tarble Arts Center where we made some tin ornaments inspired by Mexican Folk Artists.   It was kind of involved.  I remember using tin snips, sharp edges, and the colors we used were stinky and intense.  I totally modified over the years for fifth grade.

This lesson was an integration of our Hispanic Heritage Month and Day of the Dead Studies.  In the past I would also integrate with the students' studies of anatomy, but I do not even know what grade they teach that in anymore.

Yes, corner sun.  That is how you get  used as an example on this blog.

Students drew their festive skeleton on paper first.  We taped our paper to thin aluminum and traced our pencil lines.  We had newspaper place mats underneath to give the metal some give.  Then, we used a plastic stylus and traced one. more. time. directly onto the metal. We added a decorative border and colored with sharpies.  Finally, we added a fun mat of construction paper and GLITTER!

Dia de los Muertos: Fourth Grade Sugar Skull Portraits

To coincide with our studies of Day of the Dead & Hispanic Heritage Month, fourth grade made these awesome sugar skull portraits.  

I totally stole the lesson from Deep Space Sparkle, and I was not disappointed.  What I loved most about this lesson was that every child succeeded and enjoyed the project so much. The glitter was out of this world, and the only complaint was that I left the tub of "used" glitter by my desk and when the kids walked by during the Halloween parade they kept putting their hands in it.  It is really hard to resist sticking your hands in a tub of glitter.

Dia de los Muertos: Third Grade Relief Prints

Third - Fifth grade learned about Day of the Dead with the help of our social worker and our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

After Ms. Suarez discussed the actual holiday and answered the students' questions, I went through a brief PowerPoint presentation of pictures I pulled of calaveras, tin ornaments, & sugar skulls.  We discussed the art, the techniques, and picked out elements and principles.

We also watched a few YouTube Videos:
Dia de los Muertos:  A brief overview
and a very touching little short,
Dia de los Muertos

I wanted each grade level at my intermediate school to do a different lesson, but I wanted to keep it curriculum and grade level appropriate.  I was inspired by the etching La Calavera Catrina and taught relief printmaking with foam sheets to third grade.

With only 10 students in one of my 3rd grades, printing day was fun!  They each made a series of five prints.  They chose their favorite the following week and made a decorative patterned border.

Dia de los Muertos: Our Hispanic Heritage Month Integration and my Halloween Costume

The last few weeks leading up to the Day of Dead my classes have been working on projects to commemorate the holiday.  Our school social worker, Ms. Suarez, spearheaded a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at our school.  Each morning over the announcements she read a brief biography of a significant Hispanic person and gave us the Spanish word of the day!  It was pretty fun.

To integrate with art, Ms. Suarez came into each class and gave a brief overview of the holiday.  We looked at photos of celebrations, and Ms. Suarez was able to answer any questions the kids might have about the day.

Then, I took over and we looked at Calavaras, tin ornaments, and etchings and we talked about the art of Day of the Dead.  Each class had their own dedicated project and we finished our display just in time for the Nov. 1st weekend!

Whenever I see photos of my classroom, I get happy at how awesome it looks.

On Halloween, we got to dress-up!  I made a calavera - sugar skull mask and a flower and veil headdress.  The kids were amazed and creeped out.  Unfortunately, I lost the school costume contest to Doc McStuffins, but I did get featured in Cassie Stephen's Blog!

Dia de las Muertos - Day of the Dead Handout

This Dia de las Muertos/Day of the Dead handout is an introduction to the holiday for primary or secondary students.

Day of the Dead is a great holiday to study. There is a lot of cool art and folk imagery.  It could also be integrated in with History, Social Studies, Spanish, and even Science by learning about human anatomy!
My students have made tin ornaments, alters, and milagros.