AP Spanish 3 and Native Spanish Speaker students from Torrance went on a mini field trip to Torrance Elementary School on Friday, November first to celebrate Dia de Muertos. A day to honor and pay respects to those who have departed. They commemorate this day with activities and crafts from Mexico and Latin America like papel picado, Barriletes, and more. Students from both elementary and high school got to experience cultures of countries who celebrate this holiday in this exciting collaboration.
These trips started last year when Torrance Elementary’s new principal contacted Torrance High. The Spanish students ever since last year visited the dual immersion students from Torrance Elementary. Dual immersion students have all their classes taught to them in spanish. The California Department of Education states that this program helps elementary students gain “high academic achievement, first and second language proficiency, and cross-cultural understanding.”
Unlike last year’s field trip, high schoolers this year had the opportunity to teach El Dia Del Muertos traditions to more than just kindergartens but grades up to third.
“This year the kindergarteners are going to do the Cempasuchil flowers, and the first graders are doing the paper picado and the second and third graders are doing the Barriletes which are the kites,” Mr. Trani says.
Mrs. Trani, along with other Spanish teachers like Ms.Flamaco and Ms.Torres coordinated this trip. They chose 6 students per each of their classes to get a total of 48 Tatars who took this opportunity. The selected few got a permission slip that was then signed by their parents for the field trip.
On November first, all students who participated gathered in front of Mrs. Trani’s room during snack to head to Torrance Elementary. Unfortunately, Mrs. Trani could not attend due to the lack of substitute teachers for the Spanish classes during the 3rd and 4th periods. She stayed behind, watching all 3 Spanish classes in the cafeteria. But she still played a very active role as the main coordinator.
Mrs. Trani’s class prepared for this day by having her students create kites, or Barriletas. Out of wooden dowels, paper, and colorful tissue paper. Her students diligently hand craftered and designed their kites for about 3 days, embellished with paper marigolds and long colorful tissue paper tails. On the back of each kite, envelopes were taped with more elements the Highschoolers had made exclusively for the elementary kids to decorate too. Some kites flew gracefully into the sky above the Tiger’s grassy field; while other ones just barely lifted as students ran trying to make them catch flight. Despite this both Tigers and Tatars had fun, and the Tigers were very grateful that Torrance had brought over this Guatemalan. Some students even wanted to take the kites home. Later all Spanish classes would return to campus during lunch. Ms. Lopez’s class, an elementary teacher, thanked Ms. Trani’s class who made the kites through a slide presentation showcasing all the gratitude and excitement for next year’s visit. This was a heartwarming gesture that put a smile on the faces of Tatar Spanish students who saw it.
