Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) part 2

We made one final addition for our Day of the Dead display, skeleton statuettes. We made these by covering pipestem cleaners with Model Magic "clay". One pipestem cleaner, bent in half is just the right size for the body and legs, while one-half of a pipestem cleaner becomes both arms.



After the "clay"has air dried over night, paint with a glossy black paint. Wait for that to dry. Then, use white paint to paint on the bones of the skeleton. Clothes can be added after the white paint is dry, but we ran out of time.




Food is an important part of the Day of the Dead, which sometimes includes taking picnics to eat at the cemetery. I created a Day of the lunch for Blaze, by using the skull molds, from the sugar skull kit, to mold sweet rice (sticky rice). By using carrots, pumpkin seeds, olives, and refried black beans in a pastry bag, I was able to make a savory version of the sugar skulls.





Our completed ofrenda:

The Day of the Dead

Blaze and I have been learning about the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead for social studies.

We started by watching a couple short movies, this one, which was from the Travel Channel:



and this one, which was made for classroom use:


http://www.amazon.com/El-D%C3%ADa-de-los-Muertos/dp/B005S1BQZ4/ref=sr_1_5?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1351703336&sr=1-5&keywords=day+of+the+dead

The local homeschool group had a Halloween party at a park last Thursday and parents were asked to provide games or activities for the children. I had a kit for making sugar skulls that I had purchased three or four years ago, but never used, so I got that out and we took sugar skulls and 4 colors of royal frosting to the park.



I did learn a valuable lesson about placing things made of sugar in a hot car on a humid day, though. Not all the skulls made it to the park safely. Quite a few children did get to decorate them and I asked Blaze to wait until the next day to do one, so that other children could try.



The next day, Blaze and I made our own at home.



The sugar skull mold is actually handy for a variety of things. For a more permanent skull, plaster could be used and then painted. I used the molds to make skull shaped soap.



We also made our annual batch of Bread of the Dead.



The recipe of which can be found here: http://overthecrescentmoon.blogspot.com/2009/10/bread-of-dead.html

Some art projects can be planned way in advance. I purchased this little wooden casket last year when all the Halloween products went on sale after the holiday.



Blaze painted it and decorated it. Now, it's ready to be filled with chocolate candies and placed on our "ofrenda". 



Making cut paper banners is very good exercise for fine motor skills. The simple designs we used can be found here (along with several other Halloween crafts): http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Halloween/1HALLOWEEN.html



Kermit the Frog as a sugar skull coloring page, included because it is both funny and strange:
http://www.shescribes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/kermitdiadelosmuertos.pdf



Activities:

http://latino.si.edu/DayoftheDead/

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-education.html?nclick_check=1



We are not done setting up our offering table, the "ofrenda", but I will post a picture when it is finished.