Papel picado and cempasúchil flowers

Paper cempasúchil

Today we worked on decorating our skulls and set them in an "altar". Our "sugar glue" worked out quite well, I thought, and most of the cracked skulls got mended handsomely. Give them time to dry and they may stay whole for a long time. I saw lots of wonderful work.

Enjoy the picture below and watch the video on how to make "papel picado", one of our two projects for our next class.

Our other project will consist on making paper flowers similar to the cempasúchil, or flor de muertos ("flower of the dead"), depicted to the left. These flowers are named like that in Mexico because they are traditionally used during All Saints' Day, the day most families in the Hispanic world visit their cemeteries with flower arrengements.

Our skulls on display.

VIDEO: Happythought- How to make papel picado calaveras: Sugar skull decorations to make for Día de los Muertos!

Baking our "calaveras"

Today we built some "calaveras"  or "calacas" (skulls) with sugar, corn starch,  and vanilla extract (we used some lemon in our morning class). I have them in the oven drying as we speak and I will bring them to class on Tuesday for you to decorate. Some have cracked, but do not worry, we will fix them in class with "glue" (sugar paste) and I will make some extra ones in case you want to decorate those too.

Please check this link and this link for some ideas from last year.

Also, take a look at the two videos below and see you on Tuesday (¡Hasta el martes!)


VIDEO: Day of the Dead - Calaca Face Painting.




VIDEO: How to make a Mexican paper flower for Day of the dead.

Día de los muertos

Introduction to Spanish:

Today we had six short "presentations" using marionetas or hand puppets. We had some fun introducing our characters and developing some basic conversations.  I was quite impressed at how hard everybody tried and how well it all went.

Next week we are going to change gears and study a little bit of Hispanic Culture by making some traditional sugar skulls for our "celebration" of the Mexican Día de los muertos (Day of the Dead).

Roughly coinciding with All Saints day, Día de los Muertos is a celebration of the memories of those departed.  The celebrations consist, among other things, of elaborate costumes, painted faces, and masks, flower arrangements, foods and sweets, and all kinds of colorful decorations.

Below you will find a couple of videos that your child/ren can watch in preparation for class (we already watched the first one, but I really think they will enjoy watching it again). See you next Tuesday!

VIDEO: Day of the Dead (animation)



VIDEO: Gobierno de México - Día de los muertos



Intermediate Spanish:

Hi, older students! In addition to the videos above, please watch the two videos below that explain in further detail the historical background of this celebration and emphasizes the importance of remembering those who are no longer among us (hence the characters in the songs carrying pictures or the pictures in many of the "altars"). Yes, in the first video they made a mistake by placing Mexico City in the American Southwest, but otherwise it offers very good information.

¡Gracias y hasta el martes próximo!

VIDEO: National Hispanic Cultural Center - Día de los muertos



VIDEO:  El-Haru Kuroi - Día de los muertos

¿De dónde eres? and ¿Cuántos años tienes?

BEGINNERS SPANISH

In beginners Spanish we started our puppet presentations today. We barely had time though to develop our dialogue so we will continue our "mini plays" next week.

We covered wo new concepts: origin and age. Please review them with your child so we can integrate them into our play on Tuesday.

EL ORIGEN/ORIGIN

* ¿De dónde eres? (Where are you from?) is normally answered with Soy de followed by a country, state or province, town or neighbourhood.

eg. ¿De dónder eres?
     Soy de los Estados Unidos, Soy de Nueva York, Soy de Camillus, etc.)

LA EDAD/AGE

* ¿Cuántos años tienes? How old are you? is normally answered with Tengo followed by the number and the word for years (años)

eg. ¿Cuantos años tienes?
Tengo 20 años.

Watch the two short videos below for practice and see you next week!

VIDEO: Calico Spanish - ¿De dónde eres tú?




VIDEO: Calico Spanish - ¿Cuántos años tienes?

INTERMEDIATE SPANISH

In intermediate Spanish we finished our presentations. The "Google Translator" was strong in some of the sentences but it was fun all the same.

Next day we are going to start reviewing our ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) Watch the "weird", yet educative, video below and enjoy :) I really liked it.

Please notice that ordinal numbers in Spanish are masculine and feminine!!!

VIDEO: Angry Family - Ordinal Numbers in Spanish.