Dia de los Muertos: Papel Picado

Papel picado is a Mexican folk art that literally means cut paper. Beautiful papel picado banners are used for many Mexican holidays and celebrations and they are used during Day of the Dead to adorn altars.

Papel Picado is traditionally made out of tissue paper (stacks of it and cut with a chisel), but in the last few years I've used colorful copy paper to make banners in the classroom. You can get wonderful bright colors and the copy paper won't tear the way tissue paper and even construction paper can. I only had white copy paper at home so that is what I used to demonstrate.

Easy Papel Picado

Take one sheet of paper. 

Fold it hamburger style (the long way is hot dog style :).

Then fold it a second time.

Draw a lowercase w at the bottom. Mine is a little wonky, but no worries. 

Cut along the w.

Next draw a line about one inch below the top edge.

Do not cut above the line. 

Draw shapes along the folded edge. (This may be a good opportunity to talk about symmetry!)

Cut out the shapes.

Unfold once and draw shapes on the original fold.

Cut out the shapes.

Unfold and you have papel picado!
Use them to decorate your classroom, kid's room or family room.