A Mexican Celebration of Life through Art - Day of the Dead

THEME. A Mexican celebration of Life through ART: “Day of the Dead”.

KLA: Science. Historical and Geographical concepts are also embedded.

This is a drawing and painting unit for upper primary students. Images of indigenous flora and fauna are used as a metaphor to celebrate the lives of ancestors from ancient times to the present. The migration of the Monarch butterfly is a key feature of this highly coloured artwork, as it represents the souls of ancestors that return to visit each November. Students are encouraged to find their own family symbols to incorporate into a personalised artwork.

Images of Mexican flora and fauna are used to create a large, balanced and symbolic composition that pays homage to ancestors gone, but still revered in Mexican culture.