SCUC Connect Winter 2022

SPREADING their WINGS MUERTOS FEST:

S CHOO L-W I D E P RO J ECT TO C E L E B R AT E D I AS D E LOS MU E RTOS F OST E R S A S E N S E O F B E LONG I NG A ND COMMU N I T Y AMONG ST U D E N T S , T E ACH E R S , A ND FAM I L I E S

Photos Courtesy: Lines & Light Photography

AN EXTRAORDINARY COLLABORATION between teachers, students and parents helped Wilder Intermediate School pay homage to the departed and land in this year’s prestigious Muertos Fest at the Hemisfair Arena in downtown San Antonio. A two-day event, Muertos Fest was open to the public to showcase traditional art and culture to celebrate Días de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a holiday with roots in Mexico but celebrated throughout the world. Observed over two days, November 1 and 2, Dias de los Muertos is a time for people to mourn the loss of family members and friends, to ensure they are never forgotten.

Deciding to apply for one of the 50 spots was a decision not taken lightly by teachers at Wilder Intermediate. “We started working on it last year,” said Liezel Rose, fifth grade English/Spanish Language Arts teacher on the Dual Language campus. She and Carla Ortiz, sixth grade English/Spanish Language Arts teacher, convinced their principal, Phil Jackson, to allow the school to try to qualify for Muertos Fest. “He said yes, and we applied online,” said Ortiz. At Jackson’s insistence, the application had to align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), which are the state standards for what students should know and be able to do. “The science TEKS included the metamorphosis of the butterfly, We included poetry with literacy. We incorporated as much of the TEKS as we could think of,” Rose said. Lessons included the migration of the monarch butterflies to Mexico, coinciding with Dias de los Muertos, according to Rose, and how the butterflies migrate to orange flowers. Coincidentally, the butterflies even visited the orange flowers placed to honor the dead at the Wilder display at Muertos Fest. “They have butterfly gardens at Hemisfair Park,” explained Ortiz, adding, “so they had lots of monarchs coming in. So our trees had visitors, which was beautiful.”

2 0 S C U C C o n n e c t C o m m u n i t y E d i t i o n

A beautiful butterfly

display serves as the perfect backdrop for pictures for passersby at the Wilder Intermediate Días de los Muertos altar.