From Monday, April 24, to Friday, April 28, Señorita Moreno’s Spanish 1B class made their very own piñatas! If you’ve never come across a piñata before, it is a papier-mâché container that usually carries candy inside of it. The Latin community has a tradition of hanging the piñata and having someone break it with a bat/stick during parties and celebrations. Making these piñatas gave the Spanish 1B students a chance to learn about Latin culture in a hands-on way. “It’s important to us to enrich our knowledge on different cultures in our community,” says student Sophia Best.

To make the piñatas, the students blew up a balloon, dipped newspaper strips into water and flour to create the papier-mâché material, and layered the balloon with the papier-mâché to form the mold. Once the layers dried, they added lines of colorful tissue paper for decoration, making each piñata unique and beautiful. Then, on May 2, Señorita Moreno took her class outside to the lower lunch tables to crack open their candy-filled creations. As the students took turns smashing the piñatas, the rest of the class sang “Dale, dale, dale. No pierdas el tino,” a song that translates to” “Hit it, hit it, hit it! Do not lose focus! If you lose it, you lose your way!” With Ms. Devin and Mr. Tony’s help, Señorita Moreno created a fun and exciting experience for her students that they’ll remember forever.