Hopkins Public Schools issued the following announcement.
Kindergarten students celebrated the Mexican holiday with a variety of activities in Spanish Immersion classroom.
Spanish Immersion Kindergartners celebrated Dia de Los Muertos on Nov. 2. The traditional Mexican holiday is a day of remembrance of those who have passed away.
One way to celebrate this holiday is to create an ofrenda, which is a home altar with items that would signify the person that is being celebrated. Bright and colorful painted skulls are often used to decorate the ofrenda as well. The young scholars built their own ofrenda in their classroom by bringing photos of loved ones who have passed away from home. Spanish immersion teacher Edwing Llangari incorporated symmetry, shapes and numbers into the lesson as they used markers to color their own skulls.
“We were trying to connect this cultural experience with academics as well,” Llangari said.
Cultural competency is an important component of language immersion because it allows our students to grow up with an understanding of the world. Llangari said he helped his students begin to understand with a comparison of Halloween and Dia de los Muertos since the two holidays fall around the same time in the calendar.
“It helps them become more culturally aware that our celebrations aren’t the only celebrations, and depending on where you live in the world, you might celebrate things differently,” he said.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up