Information
In Mexico, they celebrate a unique holiday involving a skeleton!
Human beings and elephants are the only animals to show fear when they observe a skeleton of their own kind. Skeletons have always been related to evil and death. The Pirates symbol of death and destruction is the skull with two crossbones. The Tarot card with a picture of a skeleton means your future will be very short. Early artists painted skeletons to depict death. Even today young children view a skeleton figure such as "Skeletor" as the evil villain.
Because bones last a long time, some people view them as having great importance in their religion. The bones of Saints are preserved as an honor in some Christian churches. In Madagascar, the bones of loved ones are dug up, entertained and then buried again with gifts. (Kids Discover: Bones)
In the United States we celebrate Halloween by wearing spooky costumes, sometimes skeletons. This holiday, celebrated October 31st really began in the Christian community as a time when people remembered the dead. All Hallows Eve (hallow means holy) changed to Halloween.
In Mexico, on November 2nd, All Souls Day is celebrated and is known as The Day of the Dead. On this day, Mexicans visit the gravesites of their family and friends. They sing, dance and have a fiesta. Many days prior to this celebration, families prepare food, costumes and skeletons made out of sugar. The sugar model of a skeleton has been a tradition for over 100 years. These sugar skeletons are brought to the gravesite for the children to eat and enjoy.
Project: Day of the Dead/Sugar Skull
Objective: To incorporate making a skull out of sugar and "International Day"/Multiculturalism.
Materials: Ready to roll white icing or fondant icing, wooden board, round-blade knife or modeling tool, cake decorations, food coloring, brush.
Procedure: Note-Teacher should instruct students not to make the skulls life size but a smaller version.
Knead icing until it forms into a soft texture. Pull off small pieces and roll into a small ball. Use the wooden board to roll sugar into a flat-bottomed egg shape. At the narrow end, squeeze the sides to form cheek bones. Use the modeling tool or rounded-blade knife to form the features: two holes for the eye sockets, two smaller holes for the nostrils, and make teeth shapes along the bottom part of the jaw. Let the icing harden over night. Paint the skull with food coloring and decorate with cake decorations. Share the finished product with classmates and enjoy!
Additional information can be found in World Crafts: Festivals, First American Edition, Danbury, CT., A Division of Grolier Publishing Co., 1997. Pgs. 22-23.
An alternative activity can be found on http://www.inside-mexico.com/decorate.htm. This activity involves decorating a paper calavera (puppet) after downloading it for the web. The students can click on the picture to enlarge the puppet, cut out the skeleton parts, use a hole punch to fasten the joints and join together with thread. This "Titere del Dia de Muertos" then can be decorated with sequins, buttons, thread and glitter and hang in the classroom for display.
Instead of the sugar/icing, Crayola makes white Model Magic that can be utilized. The students however CAN NOT eat the modeling clay.
Day of the Dead Score Sheet
1.________pts Shape of a skull
2.________pts Includes eye socket, nostrils, teeth
3.________pts Embellishes skull
4.________pts Verbally states five facts about the Mexican Holiday "Day of the Dead"
25 points per section
Grade:
100-90pts= A E/E-
89-80pts= B S+
79-70pts= C S-
69-60pts= D N
59-0pts= F N-
Vocabulary Words for Word Wall
Arm/brazo | leg/pierna | foot/pie | eye/ojo | head/cabeza | face/cara
Trunk/tronco | hand/mano | feet/pies | Day of the Dead/Dia de Muertos
Puppet/Titere