Let’s take a look at a unit plan you can use to teach your students about Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead in your Spanish classroom. These Day of the Dead activities and lesson plan resources are great for middle school and high school students in Spanish class!

Day of the Dead Activities for Spanish Class​

Unit Plan Video

Day of the Dead Lesson Plan Activities for Spanish Class

Prior Knowledge of the Celebration & Tradition

For the first day of the unit, we’ll start with a Know, Wonder, Learn sheet or a KWL. The way this works is it’s going to ask your students what they already know about El Día de los Muertos celebrations, and give them space for them to share any questions or things they are curious about.

Depending on where you live, your students may or may not have encountered this celebration or symbols of this celebration before. Getting to know what preconceptions they might have is helpful as you begin your lessons and it’s a great way to get conversation started.

After the KWL sheet the students will do a little comparison activity. This is comparing Halloween and Day of the Dead, relying on their previous knowledge of Halloween versus “not Halloween”. Again, depending on your student’s prior knowledge, they might have to eliminate options, and through that elimination process, they’ll figure out more things about Day of the Dead celebrations that they might not have already known.

Next students will do look at a reading passage about the history of the celebration and holiday. If you’d like, you can dig into this with some close reading activities, or you can simply read it aloud with students. 

Then, students will listen to a fun song and do an activity that’s really great for novices as the language is super clear and it’s full of familiar, novice-friendly vocabulary. 

Finally, as they wrap up for day one, they will add to their KWL sheet. Anything they learned during the day’s lesson they will add underneath the “L” section of the handout.

Day of the Dead Virtual Field Trip

On the second day of the unit plan, students will take take a virtual field trip. 

I personally love to end a virtual field trip day with a fast finisher because they’re working on their own pace, at their own schedule. It makes sense for classroom management purposes to have clear expectations for what students should do once they’re done with the independent activity. 

Choose between a color by number sheet or a fun set of Boom Cards that review colors through papel picado. 

Try out this set of Boom Cards here!

Day of the Dead Activities on Calaveras and Calacas

One thing that tends to confuse students about Day of the Dead is that if it’s a celebration of life, why are there decorative skulls everywhere? Time to address that! Students will do a pre-reading activity, and then read a short selection about calaveras and calacas and what they have to do with Day of the Dead.

When they filled out their “Know-Wonder-Learn” sheets on day one, it’s quite possible that sugar skull and calavera decorations will be one of the most recognizable symbols so it’s the perfect opportunity to learn more about them.

​After reading about these, they’ll make their own! Give them a skull shape template and let them go to town. It’s such a fun way for students to be creative and include an art project during this unit, without needing any special materials or making a big mess.

Day of the Dead Reading Activities

Students will begin the class with this Day of the Dead gallery walk. They’ll read a ton of information, but since it’s split up and spread out around the room, it isn’t overwhelming to them! As a bonus, this set of reading activities makes a great bulletin board when you’re done with the unit. 

Then, in partners, students will do a labeling activity where they label the elements of the ofrenda. This is helpful for students to connect Day of the Dead vocabulary with the components of the celebration to help them recognize what are these symbols, what do they mean and what are their purposes with this cultural celebration.

Finally, students will watch a short video clip and wrap up the day with a word search.

Day of the Dead Ofrenda Activities

Let’s end this mini unit with an escape room challenge! Students are going to try and collect the pieces of an ofrenda. As they complete different Spanish challenges, they’ll get more and more and more pieces to finish the ofrenda. They can do the challenge individually or in groups. Personally, I love groups, as a class team building activity along with the information review and fun.

Day of the Dead Alternative Activities

Día de los Muertos is one of my favorite celebrations to teach! However, I know it can be kind of sensitive, or you might get students who are asked to be excused from this. If that’s something that you’ve experienced, make sure you check out my blog post here on alternate activities students can do during this unit in case they ask to be excused. That way you don’t have to scramble or feel stressed to find something else.

Day of the Dead Unit Plan

I hope this unit outline has been helpful for you! Click here to download all of the activities, lessons and Slides presentation to use with your middle school and high school Spanish classes!

This engaging, easy to use unit plan includes:

• Teacher Guide
• 5 Days of Lessons & Slides
• 125+ Pages
• Readings & games
• Escape Room challenge
• Answer Keys
• Print & Digital Formats

Click here to download!

Save this post for later!

More resources for Day of the Dead in Spanish Class

• Simple Art Project
• How to Make Tissue Paper Marigolds
• Digital Day of the Dead Activities
• Free Day of the Dead Fonts
• Easy Printable Day of the Dead Skull Crafts for Kids
• Alternate Activities for Day of the Dead
• Day of the Dead Worksheets & Reading Activities
• Day of the Dead Activities for Spanish Class
• Day of the Dead Craftivity Build a Skeleton Craft and Writing Activity