Grade 4: Spanish Class Celebrates Mexican Holiday

Spanish students in Kelly Viseur's class experienced a unique part of Mexican culture this week when they celebrated El Día de los Muertos (“The Day of the Dead”). The holiday, November 1-2, focuses on remembering friends and family members who have died.

Fourth graders decorated "sugar skulls," a Day of the Dead tradition. Señora Viseur made the shapes from sugar, meringue powder and water using a special mold.

"Part of learning a foreign language is appreciating the culture that is associated with the language," explains Kelly, who has celebrated this holiday in her classroom for the past six years.

"Day of the Dead is a huge celebration in Mexico that is very different from Halloween, which is supposed to be spooky. It includes altars to the deceased, flowers and, of course, these colorful sugar skulls in honor of the dead."

Students took turns sharing tubes of colored frosting to add eyes, mouths, hair and other elements to their sugar skulls, or calavera. Next week in class, each student will use his iPad to record an introduction to his calavera before taking the treat home to eat or display.