Lit Activity

Elementary Lit Activity

Johnston, Tony. Day of the Dead. Illustrated by Jeanette Winter. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1997.

About the book: Families in a small town in Mexico are preparing for the Day of the Dead by making delicious food and gathering beautiful marigolds. A brief introduction and description of the holiday follows the story at the end. The front and back covers and especially the beginning pages have a traditional Mexican cut-paper (papel picado) effect.

This bilingual story introduces some words in Spanish and can be interactive by repeating the “espéranse” told to the children who are trying to sneak savory morsels of food throughout the story.

About the author: Tony Johnston is a former fourth grade teacher and she has written over 70 children’s books. She grew up in San Marino, CA and lived in Mexico for 15 years. She earned a B.A. in history and an M. A. in education from Stanford University.

About the illustrator: Jeanette Winter earned a BFA at the University of Iowa. She has written and illustrated many great picture books, including Follow the Drinking Gourd, Diego, My Name is Georgia, Nino’s Mask, and others.

Before reading activity: Ask the children if they can speak Spanish or know any words in Spanish. Have them count along with you from 1 to 10 in Spanish and back down again. Have them learn the word “espéranse,” so that they will be able to repeat it during the story. Discuss Mexico’s Day of the Dead holiday and ask them what holiday in America celebrates relatives that have passed away (Memorial Day). See if anyone wants to share any memorial day memories, and then have them repeat “espéranse” one more time before beginning the story.

After reading activity: Show them the CD-Rom “Mexico’s Day of the Dead.” Have them watch the Don Juan Tenorio play on the projector wall screen from the laptop. They will be creating their own papel picado with patterns printed from CD-Rom:

Olivier-Hirasawa, Susan. Mexico’s Day of the Dead. CD-ROM. Seattle, WA: Pentewa Interactive, Inc. Multi Cultural Arts. 1998-2000.

Pentewa Interactive is a company that creates and publishes international, multicultural, fun, and educational interactive software for children in grades K-8. This interactive bilingual CD-ROM has many great crafts that I have used for programs. It gives great background information and traditions about the holiday, and takes you through many aspects: Home, Market, and Cemetery. The author’s pleasant voice (and great pronunciation of the Spanish words) guides you through the home preparations, market offerings, and cemetery festivities. Each activity has useful print outs, so it is very easy to do the activity for your program. Activities include: papel picado (beautiful paper cuttings,) dancing skeletons, pop-up skeletons in coffins, traditional calaveras (skull) masks by the popular artist Jose Guadalupe Posada, tissue paper flowers, and recipes.

The interactive portion of the CD-ROM lets the user set off fireworks in the nighttime sky over the cemetery, dress up different skeletons, tour the home and market, and perform solos in the skeleton band. You can also enjoy a traditional play from Mexico: “Don Juan Tenorio.” Mexico’s Day of the Dead CD-ROM is fun for children and adults to use. This bright and colorful CD-ROM is a must have for the useful handouts, activities, and background information.