Papel Picado Day of the Dead Activities · Día de los Muertos Reading & Craft

Looking for respectful, ready-to-print Día de los Muertos activities? This papel picado pack teaches K-3 students about the colorful Mexican folk art and the holiday it decorates, with reading, writing, math and art pages. One activity per page, no prep.

WHAT'S INSIDE (21-page PDF, color edition + printer-friendly edition)
- Shorter reading passage about papel picado and Día de los Muertos + 4 circle-the-answer questions
- Longer reading passage (how papel picado is made, the ofrenda, marigolds, pan de muerto) + 4 questions
- Think and write: 2 written-response questions
- Word match: 6 vocabulary pictures (papel picado, banner, marigold, ofrenda, tissue paper, pan de muerto)
- Word meanings: fill in the blank with a word bank
- Writing page: design a flag and write about it
- Design-your-own papel picado template on a grid with a fold line
- Fold-and-cut guide with symmetric shapes
- Make a banner: 4 flags to design
- Math: flag patterns (what comes next?) and a finish-the-flag symmetry page with counting
- 3 coloring pages: papel picado banner and flag, marigolds, an ofrenda
- Answer key with teacher notes (3 pages)

CUTTING IS ALWAYS OPTIONAL
Every template works with crayons alone: color it, or fold and cut with an adult.

RESPECTFUL AND ACCURATE
- Facts checked against National Geographic and university museum sources
- Describes what families do; no religious claims; it is not presented as Halloween
- Original watercolor art: flowers, birds, marigolds and an ofrenda table; no skulls or skeletons

WHY TEACHERS LIKE IT
- Two reading levels for mixed groups
- No answers given away on the passage questions and writing; the word pages and the two math pages show one gray example. Every answer is in the answer key
- Colorful pages plus a printer-friendly black-and-white edition

Great for late October and the first days of November, Hispanic heritage and world-celebrations units, centers, sub plans and homeschool.