Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a celebration of life and death. On the 1st and 2nd of November, millions of Mexican families come together to make food and create ofrendas, or altars, to remember and show respect to their loved ones who have passed.
This beautiful part of Mexican culture is what Mrs. Morgan’s Jefferson ISD’s high school students shared with the district’s elementary.
As part of the cultural component of the Spanish curriculum, Mrs. Morgan introduced this quintessentially Mexican tradition to her students.
To familiarize her students with the tradition, her class studied the popular Pixar movie, “Coco” – an animated film whose story takes place on the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Family, remembering loved ones (especially through customs like ofrendas!), and pursuing your dreams are among the feature’s most prominent themes.
After watching the film, her class decided to create a “Coco”-themed ofrenda and organize a pageant for the best catrina, a style of make up associated with the Day of the Dead that her students painted on dolls for the contest.
To celebrate and share this tradition, Mrs. Morgan’s Spanish 3 class, who travels weekly to the elementary to teach Spanish to the second graders, invited the 2nd grade class to see and learn about the ofrendas her students created while enjoying delicious cupcakes at the high school they will one day attend.
This cultural and tasty gathering was the result of great collaboration between the two schools and significant support from both high school and elementary principals, Mr. Brannen, Ms. Dossey and Mr. Venable, respectively; teachers like Mrs. Rhodes, Mrs. Howard and Ms. McGuire; Mrs. Furlow; and Mrs. Morgan and her students.