Papel Picado Tutorial and Bilingual Reading

Papel picado tutorial and bilingual reading are fantastic ways to supplement your Spanish learning. Hispanic lessons often use papel picado for crafts, activities, or history events.

As part of Hispanic culture, learning how to create and use papel picado adds cultural awareness to your lessons.

There is a rich history behind papel picado. In this Spanish lesson, you’ll learn about papel picado, read a fun bilingual story, and implement activities to enrich cultural awareness. 

Uses of Papel Picado in Bilingual Lessons

You can easily use papel picado as a fun activity. For example, you can discuss how papel picado started in Mexico as a way to remember and honor fallen heroes and family members.

Today, papel picado serves to celebrate the Day of the Dead, birthdays, special occasions, and historical events. There are many ways to make papel picado.

For instance, you can use templates, machines, and specific designs. More importantly, the color of each design represents different events or elements in nature. 

• Purple – grief and mourning
• Pink – youth and celebration
• White – hope
• Yellow – sunlight and elderly passed away
• Green – young passed away
• Blue – relates to water
• Red – honor those who died in battle
• Orange – sun, Aztecs, and holiday Day of the Dead

Papel Picado Tutorial 

You can use this papel picado tutorial to create various designs.

Materials:

• Tissue paper or crepe paper (very thin paper)
• Safety scissors
• String or ribbon
• Glue
• Pencil 
• Ruler

Instructions:

1. Begin with a 12×12 square piece of tissue paper
2. Cut as many pieces of different colors as needed
3. Fold the paper in half, then in half again
4. Cut one end of the paper into a round shape
5. Make a small circle cut in the middle
6. Unfold the tissue paper
7. Make a slight marking on the other side of the paper
8. Measure one inch from the top of the paper
9. Fold gently to indicate the area for the string or ribbon
10. Using this marking, fold the paper again lengthwise
11. Then, gently take one corner and fold it across
12. Cut various shapes along the crease
13. Unfold and fold into a rectangular shape
14. Cut small shapes around the edges
15. Unfold completely and gently smooth out the wrinkles
16. Repeat the process for other different colors of tissue paper
17. Assemble the papel picado banner using string and glue
18. Let the glue dry completely before placing the banner on a wall, door, or ceiling

Conclusion

Papel picado tutorial is a fantastic way to encourage young bilingual readers to learn about Hispanic culture. Also, you can add fun read-aloud English-Spanish stories to learn more.

Create a fun way to learn Spanish with hands-on activities like the papel picado tutorial. And you can use it for other lessons too.