Day of the Dead Activities For Kids and Classrooms

Though not celebrated in every Spanish-speaking location, Día de Muertos has deep roots in many parts of Latin America. It’s most famous as a Mexican holiday, celebrated on November 1st and 2nd.

A mix of pre-Hispanic customs and Catholic traditions, Day of the Dead is a time for families to remember their ancestors. They welcome the visiting souls of their loved ones, with bright decorations and homemade altars.

After the wide success of Pixar’s Coco, celebrating Día de muertos is more familiar than ever to the average student.

The festivities are fascinating and deeply meaningful– the perfect chance for students to take a deep dive into Spanish-speaking culture.

DAY OF THE DEAD ACTIVITIES & IDEAS

There are tons of resources for learning about Day of the Dead, in both Spanish and English. Below, you can find all of my favorites organized into categories.

Day of the Dead Activities for Kids and School:

More Day of the Dead Learning Resources:

Curious About Día de Muertos? Learn more:

Day of the Dead Crafts AND Coloring Pages

Printable Sugar Skulls, Masks, and Coloring Pages
I created these coloring pages to introduce kids to different Day of the Dead celebration elements: calaveras, marigolds, altars, papel picado, candles, and more. They also include a page with a monarch butterflies as an alternative image.

Free printable for papel picado from Live Colorful.
Although real papel picado is made from tissue paper, in a pinch you can print out this little banner onto colored paper for some quick decorations.

Free color-by-number Calaveras from Spanish Playground.

Sugar Skull Luminaries
For Day of the Dead home decorations, this is a very simple and pretty sugar skull craft!

Stone Sugar Skulls from Alisa Burke
These teeny sugar skulls are painted onto rocks and look amazing!

Shoebox Altar from Discovering the World Through My Son’s Eyes
This is a lovely mini-altar that students could create instead of a full-sized ofrenda.

Mini-Altars in a Jar
This is another idea for a mini-altar alternative.

Skeleton craft for Day of the Dead
This is a simple idea for kids that involved gluing skeletons onto colored construction paper. Calacas are often shown playing music or doing other fun things, as shown in this craft!

Need an alternative to images of skeletons and skulls?

• Learn about monarch butterflieswith crafts and reading passages in Spanish.
• You can do a papel picado craft simply by folding tissue paper and cutting out designs with scissors. Creating a banner like this is very festive and pretty!
• Make flores de Cempasúchil flowers out of paper tissue (Youtube tutorial).

DAY OF THE DEAD LESSON IDEAS

Here are some free resources to help you find ideas and get your lesson plans together!

Pre-teach key unfamiliar vocabulary:

• Here is a free Pear Deck slideshow for introducing the basics (in Spanish. from TpT).
• I have these simple editable outlines about ofrendas and their elements, for you to adjust as needed and print (English). It includes a blank altar, to have students draw and label.
• Here is a free, editable list of terms I created (click the link to force a copy).
• Click to download vocabulary wordsfor a word wall.
• Use this digital Bingogame to teach and review important vocabulary.

Free reading passages about Day of the Dead:

• 2 levels of readings to introduce elDía de los Muertos, from Spanish Playground.
• ¿Qué es el Día de Muertos? printable text for A2-B1 students, with vocabulary and a word search.
  La Profe Plotts has an amazing reading activity packhere.
• Two cute read-and-match activities, based on images of sugar skulls, also from Spanish Playground.
• Día de Muertos mini-book from TpT.

• Printable elementary-level reading passage with questions (free on TpT).
• This text takes a deeper dive into the origins of Day of the Dead, and includes information on Halloween, for students to compare and contrast (upper grades, free on TpT).

Watch a short non-fiction film.

I’ve linked to many videos below. Here are some ready-made activities that accompany free videos:

• TeachVid has a cool introduction to altars. activities: video 1. You can easily create an activity like a gap fill.
• Spanish Playground has a short video with printable listening activities.

Research and compare Día de Muertos traditions across Latin America.

• Most lesson only focus on how Mexico celebrates. This posthas info, links, and YouTube videos for exploring other Latin American customs.
• Williamson CI & TPRS has 3 Embedded Reading in Spanish, with a follow-up activity comparing traditions across Latin America (high school).

Google Arts and Culture has some amazing resources as well, for exploring Day of the Dead. I really like the video that introduces the holiday with vivid images, and there’s even an interactive altar!

Movies and SHORT FILMS FOR DAY OF THE DEAD

Videos are a really good way to put students in touch with the vibrant sights of Día de Muertos.

There are some great resources on TpT to go with Coco.

• I loved this free 41-slide PowerPoints presentation from Arianne Dowd, for the Coco trailer
• You can also extend the lesson by studying the song La llorona from Coco, with this TpT freebie.

Watch El Libro de la Vida.

For The Book of Life, you can use:

• A basic guide with questions from Kara Jacobs
• This free guide for novicesfrom Mis Clases Locas.

Short films:

Instead of choosing a feature-length movie, there are some brilliant short films you can show. If teaching Spanish, use them as a MovieTalk. You can find my favorites embedded below.

If you teach various levels, make it easy on yourself by choosing one film to use for all the classes and adjusting the language for each group.

Día de Los Muertos

This is a beautiful little film about young girl who visits her mother in the afterlife. Elena López has extensive resources for using La niña que recuerda with older Spanish learners.

Visit my Día de Muertos page on Pinterest to find lots more Día de muertos realia!

BOOKS FOR DAY OF THE DEAD

Here are some titles in English and Spanish for learning more about Day of the Dead traditions:

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Day of the Dead Books

SONGS FOR DAY OF THE DEAD

Here are two songs that work for different levels. You can also see my entire post on Day of the Dead songs, for more options.

Calaverita by La Santa Cecilia is a fun song that would work well for older students.

• Kara Jacobs and Elena Lopez put together an amazing slideshow and activities to go with the song Calaverita.
• Producing Polyglots has a song lyrics activity you can use.

Chúmbala Cachúmbala

This classic song could work for younger students, with kid-friendly illustrations and music. I have an activity pack on TpT for $3 that goes with this song as well!