Halloween at Cantos Altos

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Although Halloween isn’t traditionally celebrated in Spain, it’s becoming more popular with the influence of Americans and with globalization in general. You can find costumes and decorations in some stores, but it’s nowhere near the level of U.S. preparations. The other day I found specific pumpkins for Halloween in the grocery store:

Since we are sharing our culture working in a bilingual school, Halloween is a fun holiday for assistants to share with the kids. Throughout the week first grade sang and danced to various Halloween-related songs such as Dem Bones or simply “The Skeleton Dance.” They LOVE it and if you are a language assistant reading this, it’s a great interactive video to have on hand in case you are also studying parts of the body. Other Halloween videos include 5 Little Pumpkins and Peppa Pig Fancy Dress Party.

Decorating commenced the week of Halloween with door decorations, ghosts and witches hanging from the ceiling, and with pumpkin carving. In third grade we also tried to make spider webs by cutting folded trash bags in the same style as a snowflake with paper.

My first graders took turns coloring the door I drew for them and even colored the bat from my adult coloring book to hang in the hallway.  

The assistants were in charge of planning and prepping the Halloween festivities. We decorated the library and the salón de actos and I had fun making this pumpkin door:

On the day of the party, the kids came class by class and participated in our activities: musical chairs, face painting, corn toss, and a pumpkin craft. Face painting was one of my activities and it was great fun decorating their faces and hands with spider webs, flowers, and fake blood to enhance their costumes.

The last few minutes of the day were spent dancing and running around the gym to expend all the children’s pent-up, candy influenced energy. The exhausted teachers were happy when Halloween Friday was finally over, but were rewarded with a four day weekend!