I am seeing just so many wonderful Día de los Muertos crafts, printables, and recipes on the internet. I had to put them together and share them with you. There are so many clever ideas and ways to decorate an ofrenda or simple activities to teach families about this holiday. I could just keep adding and adding to this, but here's a start. I hope you find something to try. And if you'd like to learn more about Day of the Dead, be sure to visit my page: Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead Lesson Plans and Activities.
Day of the Dead Pumpkin Our Crafty Mom has this simple and beautiful calavera pumpkin that can be adapted with any design that you have access to. (Good for children ages 8 and up.)
MINI LEMON SUGAR SKULL CAKES My friend, Yvette, over at Muy Bueno Cookbook has many great recipes like this one for Día de los Muertos. You may also like these candy skulls that look divine.
Instant Pot Pan De Muerto I had NO IDEA you could make pan de muerto in an INSTANT POT! This recipe is from Corrie Cooks.
There are literally dozens of fantastic tutorials on YouTube on how to draw sugar skulls. Some of them are just the cutest things I've ever seen. And some of them have been turned into really clever crafts. With my own kids in mind, I went through and found some of the best videos for drawing or painting calaveras. Scroll through the ones I've listed below and let your kids pick out the ones they'd like to try!
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Gather Your Art Supplies
Before you get started, first decide on the video tutorial you'll be using. Then go ahead and get all your art supplies together. Here are some of the supplies used in the following art lessons.
Are you looking for some last-minute print-and-go activities for Día de los Muertos to share with your kids? MommyMaestra has you covered!
Be sure to check out the Día de los Muertos section of my TpT shop. Most of the downloads are available in both English and Spanish. And you can buy them individually or in a bundle. Here are some examples of the activities in my shop:
Día de los Muertos is quickly approaching. It is the time of year when many families take the opportunity to remember their friends and family who have passed away.
If you don't know what exactly Day of the Dead is about, check out my post, A Brief History of Día de los Muertos for Children. You can also click on the post tags to see TONS of content (crafts, books, lesson plans, etc.) for this holiday here on MommyMaestra
I'm kicking off this year's Day of the Dead content by sharing this lovely new animated music video by Nathalia. I think those of you raising bilingual kids will love it.
Friends, here's a series of workshops that I absolutely do not want you to miss!
The Artes de la Rosa Cultural Center has partnered with local museums in Fort Worth, TX, and is hosting several online Día de los Muertos Workshops. All of them will be conducted on their Facebook page via Facebook LIVE.
NOTE: If you live in the DFW area, they will make free kits available for pickup prior to each workshop!
The event is FREE and will be presented in both English and Spanish. Here is a list of the materials you'll need for the projects.
Here's a peek at the instructors and the projects:
The second one is on Saturday, Nov 7th from 12pm to 1pm CT in partnership with the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. In this workshop, you'll learn all about Monarch Butterflies. They will talk about their life cycle, how to attract them to your gardens, as well as their interesting and mysterious migration. Participants will get to make a monarch glider as part of this class. Printed templets and pennies will be provided for this activity.
And the final one is on Saturday, Nov 14th from 12pm to 1pm CT. In this workshop, the Kimbell Art Museum will teach two 30-minute workshops that explore art, family ancestry, and our favorite delicious foods! They’ll begin with a storybook reading and discussion about what our names mean to us, followed by a mixed-media painting activity celebrating the story of our names!
The second session, inspired by ofrendas and family cooking, takes a closer look at tasty treats in Kimbell still life paintings with a related bookmaking activity to help you start your own collection of family recipes.
**To ensure that you don't miss any of these, click the links above to be taken to the Facebook page where you can click on "Interested" so you'll receive notification reminders.
Monarch butterflies are remarkable animals. Their story is unbelievable. Who would guess such a delicate creature could travel huge distances and survive the challenges they face? [UPDATE: Well, actually, they're in trouble and have just been added to the endangered species list (in 2022).] So I want to highlight the history of the Monarch butterfly as we know it.
A couple of weeks ago, my boys and I were walking on our property to a section that has a bunch of pine trees to collect some pine cones. When we arrived, I was delighted to see a Monarch butterfly flutter past my face. And then I saw another one. And another one.
Pura alegría.
Later that evening, we went walking again in the woods and they were everywhere. I realized that it was my very good fortune to be witnessing the Super Generation on their fall migration to Mexico. They arrive at their destination - the Oyamel fir forests of Michoacán, Mexico - right around the time of Día de los Muertos. And so, it is no surprise that these beautiful creatures are now closely associated with the folklore surrounding Day of the Dead.
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A Remarkable Journey
But the Monarchs that arrive in Michoacán, are not the same ones that left it the previous spring. In fact, each year, it takes four generations for the butterflies to complete their journey from Mexico to Canada and back again. This is their cycle:
In March, the butterflies leave their wintering grounds in Mexico and begin laying eggs as they make their way north into the southern United States.
1st Generation: Those eggs laid in the south hatch into caterpillars who grow into butterflies to lay more eggs as they continue their journey north.
2nd Generation: These butterflies hatch and lay eggs in the north.
3rd Generation: These also hatch and lay eggs in the north.
4th Generation: This final generation hatches in the north and begins its long single journey to their southern wintering grounds in Mexico. If they survive the winter, they will begin their journey north and lay eggs as they pass through northern Mexico and the southern United States.
Dr. Fred Urquhart, a Canadian biologist who together with his wife, Norah, had been studying the butterfly for more than 30 years. They had identified the migration routes of the Monarch and wondered where it was that the butterflies were migrating to. They were convinced it was somewhere in Mexico.
In 1972, he hired two naturalists - Catalina Aguado (shown above) and Kenneth C. Brugger - in Mexico to look for the Monarch's winter habitat. Three years later, they discovered it. (Read the original article here.)
There are only 12 locations where the Monarchs overwinter. The oyamel fir forests are found in the volcanic mountainsides of central and southern Mexico and western Guatemala. These high-altitude cloud forests experience cold temperatures and occasional snow... which makes them surprising overwintering grounds for these delicate creatures.
Did you know? The Spanish name oyamel comes from the Nahuatl word oyametl: oya, "to thresh"; metl, "agave"; literally "threshing agave").
The habitat's future remains a concern. Especially after the death of Homero Gómez González, the former logger who became an environmental activist who was very vocal against illegal logging. He managed El Rosario butterfly reserve and was a champion for the preservation of the oyamel and the Monarchs. Homero's tortured body was found floating in a well two weeks after he'd gone missing.
The Super Generation
Monarch butterflies typically live 2 to 6 weeks... except for the fourth generation which makes the long migration from Canada to Mexico in the fall and back up to the southern U.S. in the spring. It can live as long as 8 to 9 months!
How do they do that?
And they make an incredible journey of more than 3,000 miles, sometimes flying 50 miles each day.
How do they do that?
These fragile insects rely on their environmental temperature to warm or cool their bodies. In fact, they can't even fly if their body temperature drops below 86 degrees. And yet, they migrate not to a warm climate, but to a high-elevation forest where cold temperatures are common.
Why do they do that? Why bother to migrate if they are able to survive such a winter climate?
And finally, these butterflies make the incredible journey to return to the EXACT same place that their GREAT GREAT GRANDPARENTS overwintered the year before.
How. Do. They. Do. That?
Day of the Dead
It's certainly no wonder why the little Monarchs are so revered by the Purépecha, an indigenous group from Michoacán, who believe the butterflies are actually the souls of their dearly departed.
This video was produced last year and has been going around social media for a few weeks now. It's absolutely beautiful, so I decided to go ahead and share it. (Nati and her Abuelita are my favorites!)
This video takes you to El Rosario and talks about the discovery of the wintering grounds.
Learning More...
If you want to learn more about Monarch butterflies with your children, I strongly recommend you visit the site, Journey North. There's SO MUCH INFORMATION on this website! In fact, I wrote about them 10 years ago to highlight their Symbolic Migration program, which just completed its 25th anniversary this year. (I wish I'd remembered them and shared the program with you a few months ago!)
In addition, the Texas Butterfly Ranch is hosting its 5th Annual MONARCH BUTTERFLY AND POLLINATOR FESTIVAL and has online content available through the end of this month (that means SATURDAY!). But what touches my heart the most about this place is that they tag butterflies and I read this on their website:
Monarch butterflies move through Texas each fall on their way to the Mexican mountains to arrive in time for Day of the Dead. In this year of COVID-19 and a raised awareness of social injustice, we celebrate the spiritual aspect of the migration. For centuries, perhaps millennia, the return of the butterflies to Mexico each fall has been associated with the souls of lost loved ones, as they typically arrive in the Mexican mountains in time for Day of the Dead. As a gesture of hope and healing, all 600 butterflies tagged this year as part of our Festival will be done so in the names of those lost to COVID-19, social injustice and other causes.
Go check out their site and enjoy the online videos they have posted before they are removed!
Monarch Butterfly Learning Tools
If you want to continue the learning experience with your children, here are some of my favorite Monarch-themed learning toys.
To wrap things up, here's a printable activity for your kids. Print the following on cardstock and help your child put together this Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle Flip Book!
One of the aspects of Day of the Dead that isn't talked about much is the nicho. Many people don't even include one on their ofrendas, but it is a practice that is growing in popularity. Read on to learn about the history of nichos and to find resources for making your own. And be sure to check out my post on Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead Lesson Plans and Activities.
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What is a nicho?
Nichos are a type of handmade shadowbox. This form of folk art finds its roots in the Roman Catholic retablos, which were brought to the New World by the Spanish. Retablos were stories in a box - usually of religious scenes or patron saints. They were beautifully painted and filled with hand-crafted figures.
But here in the Americas, the indigenous people took the retablos and developed them into a different artform: the nicho.
Nichos, in general, are display boxes, too. The subject can be anything: religious in nature, a mini shrine to famous people, or (as is the case in Día de los Muertos) a tribute to a loved one who has passed away.
Originally, they were crafted into ornately decorated tin-plate frames. But today, they may be made out of any kind of materials, but they do tend to have a few things in common: they are colorful, bold, and sometimes sparkly.
Día de los Muertos Nichos
For Day of the Dead, nichos usually have one of two themes:
they display a traditional scene featuring calacas (skeletons) as the main figures, OR
they are a display created in honor of the loved one who has died.
In the latter case, they will usually include a picture of the deceased and include elements that are closely related to that person, such as their hobbies, careers, passions, and/or talents. For example, the image below is of a nicho I made in honor of my abuelita, who loved singing, cooking, and gardening. She was also a devout Catholic. So I tried to include elements that represented all of her talents and passions.
My favorite book for introducing children to this artform is Paquito y Abuelito. Unfortunately, it is hard to find, but there are a few available on Amazon (see aff link below) and you can read a review of it here.
Art Supplies for DIY Nichos
Here are some of the more common art supplies used by nicho artists (young and old!).
Shoe boxes work great, but if you want something that will last longer and that you can display year after year, maybe these Standing Wood Nichos from BonesAndCobwebson Etsy are more to your liking. They actually have many elaborate wooden nichos ready to be decorated that are for sale.
Of course, you need paints, like this Acrylic Paint Set with 24 Colors and 12 brushes.
This week, my focus is completely on Day of the Dead. I'm going to start by sharing my newest printables and a digital resource available now in my TpT shop.
Are you looking for digital resources to teach about Day of the Dead? Consider my Boom Cards! Also available in Spanish, these reading passages include self-grading reading comprehension questions.
Lotería is my favorite to teach and reinforce vocabulary. I have a whole series of Lotería printables, and this one is themed for Día de los Muertos. Includes directions for different ways to play and win, as well as 10 different game boards (5 in English and 5 in Spanish).
In three short weeks, people all across the Americas and beyond will be celebrating Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Teachers have begun to search for resources, and families who are now homeschooling are looking for materials, too.
I am so excited to share that my Day of the Dead: Preschool Activity Book now has a Spanish version!
Thank you so much to my amiga, Dania Santana, for double-checking some of the translation. She helped get it in shape for publication.
Last year, I published the English version and it was very popular. But I had a ton of requests for it in Spanish, so I'm happy to be able to offer it to bilingual families.
These 40-page activity books are filled with fun, colorful activities to keep your preschooler learning while having fun.
They include a short description of the holiday at the beginning of the book and then launches into activities that help your children develop their literacy and counting skills. Coloring pages give them an opportunity to strengthen their fine-motor skills, and puzzles and mazes give them an opportunity to work on hand-to-eye coordination. Your kids will identify the beginning sounds of specific words and can also practice writing.
The activities are diverse to engage children at different skill levels. Beginning preschoolers may prefer simpler activities, and older children will enjoy more complex ones.
One of the things I love best about PBS is how hard it works to be inclusive and to reflect the experiences of their viewers. From Sesame Street to Molly of Denali, I feel like the shows on PBS KIDS introduce children to a diverse world and also help empower children from a variety of backgrounds. And the same is true for their programming for adults.
Did you know that PBS has quite a few resources for Día de los Muertos? Sometimes it's hard to get things exactly right, but most of the time, the introduction (to children) is pretty accurate. I've chosen my favorite episode, craft, and lessons that introduce Day of the Dead to families.
First, for the children...
PBS KIDS
One of my son's favorite new PBS KIDS shows, Let's Go Luna!, has an episode dedicated to the Day of the Dead! Click here to watch it online - just skip to the second half of the show (12:00) to watch it.
PBS Parents
PBS's website for parents also has this super fun tutorial for creating Day of the Dead Candle Magnets. They are just the cutest and pretty easy for older children to make on their own!
PBS Learning Media
There are a few different lessons on here, but these two are my favorites. The first is a comprehensive unit with multiple videos. The second is a nice introduction to the holiday from a personal point of view.
And finally, for teens and adults, there is a wonderful documentary available for streaming on PBS.org. Artbound has this Día de los Muertos episode that features an "altarista" from L.A., and also talks about the history of Day of the Dead in this country.
