Teaching at a Title 1 site there are some things that we have easy access to, things like technology, we are able to ensure that each student has access to. When it comes to things like art supplies we have a limited budget and we often have to go without or pay for these supplies out of our own pockets. I am always spending money on my class. Now that Maria and I are working together it seems we are both spending more, not less, than we have in the past. So when Oriental Trading Company approached me last month asking me to review their products in exchange for the items I was reviewing I jumped at the chance. In thanking their representative and telling her about our Title 1 status she suggested we team up throughout the year in order to provide items for my students (and save me money) I jumped at this offer too.
Therefore, this post is dedicated to the items for the Day of the Dead (which is big where I teach) and Halloween which I am so very grateful for receiving from Oriental Trading Company. While I was compensated for this post, these opinions are my own. (I will update this post with class photos once we work on these projects).
I am attempting to get a Trunk or Treat event at my school as they are so much fun and in neighborhoods like the one I teach in that is mostly apartments, it is safer than kids going up and down the stairs in the dark. I brought this up with my admin and we are going to start with two slots in the district Trunk or Treat event at another site. One of our cars has a Day of the Dead theme. With a large Hispanic student population, this is a big deal and we usually teach something about this holiday as well as Halloween. To help us with this, Oriental Trading is sending us these Color Your Own Day of the Dead Masks for our lesson (and which we can then use for car decorations as well).
Our district has a no sweets policy and we cannot have food in our classroom that doesn't come from Food Services (do not get me started on this - I do not believe that birthday cupcakes and holiday treats are the reason so many students are overweight, but I digress). So in order to provide our students with something special for these holidays we are also getting Day of the Dead Cellophane Bags for stickers, and a few other things to make the day special for them. I am on a Peanuts kick this year. I have incorporated a lot of Snoopy items with the polka dot theme of our room and I couldn't go without giving the kids some Snoopy related items. Thanks to Katie at Oriental Trading we are going to be able to to give our students Peanuts Halloween pencils and stickers.
Finally, we are trying to do more art this year (we only have art instruction from an art teacher once a week for the last half of the year) as part of our STEAM curriculum. I saw these Color Your Own Halloween Bags and I couldn't resist! What a great thing for our kids to color their own Halloween bags and write a creative story to go along with the image on the bags. Well you can't have cloth color your own bags and not have the fabric markers to color them. We are so very lucky that we were able to get these from Oriental Trading as well. I am so very excited about this project! I can't wait to read the stories they will write and how they will make their bags unique to their personalities. (I will add photos once we do the project.)
What do you do to celebrate Halloween and/or the Day of the Dead?
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