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Day of the Dead

Dia de Los Muetro is a colorful holiday celebrated in Mexico on November 1st and 2nd. My 4th grade students created celebratory sugar skulls with soap and oil pastels. This is a great lesson that supports our Texas history curriculum and the end art product is very divergent.

I began the lesson with a great book, by Tony Johnston, "The Day of the Dead." After the introduction to the Holiday, the students practiced various types of skull drawings in their sketchbooks. They redrew their skull with pencil on good 9 x 12 black construction paper. They added and bedazzled their skulls with personal details. Be careful to not draw too small.

Using small pieces of white bar soap, they traced the pencil lines. The soap is washed away at the end to expose black outlines!

I have the students color the white skull first, followed by brilliant colors that stand out on the black paper. Try not to color over the soap!

When they have covered the entire paper, submerge the paper in water to wipe away the soap. Dry on newspaper.


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Colorful sculptures from San Antonio's vibrant market.

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