Art, English and Spanish Join Forces

Jennifer Coppolino, Immaculate Heart of Mary Grade School, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio/K-8 Spanish Teacher

At Immaculate Heart of Mary Grade School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the Spanish teacher, Jennifer Coppolino, has been collaborating with the art teacher, Chris Comeriato, and the junior high English teacher, Sandra Leyden.  This year, as in years past, the seventh grade students have gone on a very diverse adventure to Cleveland to experience the West Side Market, Glass Bubble Project, and the Gordon Square Day of the Dead exhibits.  Prior to this trip the students have been studying, El día de los muertos, in Spanish, art and English classes.

The seventh graders make “ofrendas” (offerings) in English class using their ode poems and objects that they learned are customary to find on the altar in Spanish class.  These ofrendas become an ‘in-school’ field trip for the younger grades along with the school wide ofrenda that is created with pictures of loved ones from all the students and faculty, and decorated with paper flowers and papel picado (perforated paper) skulls made during Spanish class.  In art class, they make skull necklaces out of clay, masks and color paper calaveras (skulls).  This field trip also reinforces a past glass making unit on Chihuly in art class and builds prior knowledge for the future food/shopping unit in Spanish.