Watch the Calaveras Shake

Dia de los Muertos: A Collaboration

by: Nanette Gabriel, Librarian

Watch the calaveras shake, rattle and roll as they celebrate the biggest event of the graveyard’s social calendar. Where is this event taking place? In the Memorial Drive Elementary Library, of course!  A collaborative effort between the Art teacher, Spanish teacher and the Librarian has brought this joyful celebration, with its unusual traditions to life. To celebrate Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, an altar with many ofrendas has been erected in the library to welcome loved ones home. 

In the art classes, Mrs. Guelzow, has worked with the third graders making sugar skulls with chalk and glue. The fourth graders have fashioned skeleton marionettes, while the fifth graders crafted sugar skulls on papel picado.

Mrs. Medina has worked with the second through fifth graders in their

respective Spanish classes making angelitos. Each colorful paper angel has a handwritten note, in loving remembrance, to honor those who have passed.

Ms. Gabriel will trace the origins of Dia de los Muertos from its conception, when the Aztec civilization reigned supreme, then follow it through European conquests to the current, often secular, celebrations.