Day of the Dead for Spanish Classes

Today I’ve been listening to four connections that are a result of the Jazz workshop. The lesson plan was written in the workshop this summer.

One of the pairs were two of the teachers in the workshop this summer; but my teacher needed 3 more partners, so we used other contacts to find the rest of the partners needed.

Our students were 7th graders, and our partners were 5-7th grade classes in TX and NY.

Hands-On Activities!

This is one of the first collaborations I’ve seen where BOTH! classes sent materials to each other to do hands-on activities during the videoconference.

Our class taught the partner classes how to do papel picado artwork with tissue paper. Students explained about the art, the history, and how it fits into the Day of the Dead celebration. Then some of our students led both classes in making their own papel picado tissue artwork.

Our partner classes shared different things with us.

  • One partner class was a music class. They sang a Spanish song and then taught it to our students. They had sent a hand-out with the words to our students so they could follow along and learn the Spanish words. The song was Yo Te Vide. With this partner class, our students wanted to share their Spanish alphabet song.
  • Another class shared their paper plate skeleton faces and popsicle stick art projects. They explained how they made it.
  • The other partner classes shared with our students their sugar skulls. They taught us the history and meaning of the sugar skulls. Then taught our students how to make sugar skulls and our students followed along. It was kind of like a student-led cooking show!

These connections were neat to watch. Students were actively engaged on both sides. Fantastic experience for all the students!

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