Day of the Dead Art Lesson Plan

The Day of the Dead is a holiday celebrated primarily in Mexico. If you have ever visited Mexico, or even the states bordering Mexico you have likely seen Day of the Dead artwork. Day of the Dead art, featuring happy-go-lucky skeletons doing everyday activities and traditional Mexican themes, is everywhere in the region. The Day of the Dead is a great holiday to explore with your students or children. This Day of the Dead lesson plan uses scratch art paper to create Day of the Dead artwork.

Objective: This Day of the Dead art lesson plan aims to introduce the holiday to students. Students will create their own piece of Day of the Dead artwork using scratch art paper.

Audience: Students or children in the third through seventh grades.

Supplies: In order to implement this Day of the Dead art lesson plan you will need white scratch art paper (www.enasco.com or www.saxarts.com), wooden styluses (often come with the scratch art paper), and some examples of Day of the Dead artwork to show the students (search "Day of the Dead" art on Google Images).

Procedure: Start out your Day of the Dead lesson by talking to your students about "Dia De Los Muertos" which translates to mean Day of the Dead. Try to discover if the students know anything about the Day of the Dead and if they have any misconceptions about what The Day of the Dead is. Make sure you do your research ahead of time so you know the history of The Day of the Dead and how The Day of the Dead is celebrated. It is important to explain to students that The Day of the Dead is not Mexico's Halloween (which is often a misconception students have).

After the students have some background information about The Day of the Dead in general, move on to talk about Day of the Dead art. Show pictures of Day of the Dead art and explain the Day of the Dead art. Some concepts the students should glean during this portion of the Day of the Dead lesson plan are:

Day of the Dead art is almost always colorful

Day of the Dead art is not meant to be scary

Day of the Dead art almost always features skeletons

Day of the Dead art features skeletons doing everyday activities, wearing clothes, etc.

Day of the Dead art is generally not supposed to be realistic (somewhat cartoon-like)

These generalities about most Day of the Dead artwork will help your students to create their own artwork in a similar style.

The students are now ready to create their Day of the Dead scratch art. Keeping the information about Day of the Dead artwork they just learned in mind, students should use the scratch art paper to create their very own Day of the Dead artwork. Students really love using scratch paper and because of the bright colors in the paper it lends itself well to Day of the Dead art. The photo featured with this article gives an example of a finished Day of the Dead scratch art piece as created through this Day of the Dead art lesson plan.

The Day of the Dead is a highly interesting holiday that students are often very excited to learn about. Use this Day of the Dead art lesson plan with your students for a fun and informative project.