Dia de los Muertos for Kids

Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead is a holiday that honors people who have died and is mostly celebrated in Mexico. It can be fun to add a little bit of learning about Dia de los Muertos to your classroom or home routine, especially if you teach Spanish or live somewhere with a large Hispanic population. Here are some Dia de los Muertos crafts and other activities to do with kids.

There are a few classic symbols of the day, one of which is decorating with or wearing masks or face paint that looks like skulls. One Little Project has a Day of the Dead mask made with a paper plate. I did something similar as a craft for my daughter’s class Halloween party several years ago, cutting skull shapes out of posterboard and giving them circles, flower petals, hearts and other shapes to use to decorate their skulls. (You can also just draw on them as she shows.)

Tissue paper flowers are a common decoration throughout the year, and you can learn to make them from Little Cooks Reading Books. Theses are so fun to make in a bunch of different colors to decorate the classroom (and a great use for all that slightly used tissue paper you’ve been keeping for reasons).

Speaking of tissue paper, papel picado is another classic Mexican craft you may see around this time of year. I found basic instructions on Pinterest, but you can also find some templates in the Fun for Spanish Teachers store at Teachers Pay Teachers.

Nicho boxes (little niches or shadowboxes) are another easy craft to make with kids for Dia de los Muertos. These boxes are sometimes seen on the altars families make to honor their deceased loved ones at this time of year. You can make your own and draw a skull inside or a picture of someone who has died. Kitchen Table Classroom has the instructions and a sugar skull printable sized to fit in the niche.

Happy Toddler Playtime has some cute Dia de los Muertos coloring pages, and you can find great fact sheets about Day of the Dead in both English and Spanish at Multicultural Kid Blogs.

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Dia de los Muertos Crafts and Activities

Shark Week generally happens in July, but any time is a good time to learn more about sharks.

First, start with some fun whale facts like these from Kids Craft Room. Here I learned about the dwarf lantern shark, which is the smallest shark and only grows to about 6-8 inches (about 15-20 cm) long. It also emits light. How cool is that?

Natural Beach Living has some great printable shark information guides, where kids can learn about different kinds of sharks, match the facts to the pictures, or print out doubles and do a shark memory game.

Living Life an Learning has some great shark activity pages including the parts of a shark, types of sharks, a crossword puzzle and more. Also check out their parts of a shark and word scramble download, and a life cycle worksheet.

Learn about how sharks float with this great activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Need more facts about sharks? This fact pact from The WOLFe PACK on Teacher Pay Teachers includes fact sheets, a printable flip book, informational text, vocabulary, comprehension questions and more.

Living Montessori Now has a great collection of shark themed activities with a Montessori inspired twist. You’ll find a shark roll and cover, shark phonics and lots more shark activities Deb has collected from all over the Internet.

Remember the “Sharknado” movie? A Few Shortcuts turned the combination of sharks and tornadoes into a fun science activity. You’ll need a bottle connector for this project but otherwise should have everything you need on hand. Use their template to make your sharks out of aluminum foil. So fun!

You can also do some shark themed coloring with these coloring pages from Encouraging Moms at Home. Or make a cool 3D shark with this template from korkotak. And there are tons of different shark crafts collected in this post from Kids Activities Blog.

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