Halloween and El Día de los Muertos was a cause of much celebration and quite a bit of learning at Hillside.
The 5th and 6th grade took advantage of the ready availability of pumpkins to do a little math. Their “Pumpkin Explorations” has them estimating the weight of the pumpkin and then testing their answers, estimating the number of seeds in each pumpkin and determing how close their prediction was to the actual answer and finally calculating how many seeds each student would get if they were distributed evenly.
Not only did they do some fine math but at the end of the day they had a jack o’ lantern as well.
The Spanish Class celebrated the Mexican holiday, El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl. Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.
And of course there was the annual Halloween Party. Replete with great costumes, games, and sweets.
