Sugar Skulls by Sara

On November 22, 5th graders at Glenridge Elementary School met in the Spanish room to make sugar skulls for the Day of The Dead. Leaded by Senora Kennerly, these special 5th graders use plastic skull molds that they fill with sugar. They remove the extra sugar before carefully picking the mold up and letting the sugar dry. When they come back the next day, their skulls are dry and they get to decorate them with bright colored homemade frosting.

The 5th graders had many different colors to choose from, but the hot pink frosting was the most popular. The frosting was made by Glenridge teachers and was put in easy open tabs ziploc bags. The ziploc bags had a small hole cut on one of the plastic corners to deposit frosting. Senora Kennerly was showing the 5th graders how to squeeze the frosting out of the bag carefully onto the sugar skull. She first said to wipe the hole so all the dry frosting is gone. Then she showed the 5th graders how to “massage” the frosting to the hole making sure the frosting does not come out of the bag. The 5th graders got to work. The most common design I saw was small frosting dots going from the head to the bottom of the skull. Another popular design was filling the eye holes with frosting. “My favorite design was drawing swirls with the hot pink frosting all over my sugar skull.” Says 5th grader, Sara. Senora Kennerly was telling the 5th graders how to make sure the frosting would not explode. After all, it was just a ziploc bag.

Before the 5th graders left with their sugar skulls, Senora Kennerly gave the 5th graders one last warning: The sugar skull is not for eating. Senora Kennerly said this because she had a cold when the 5th graders made the sugar skulls. Also, even if she did not have a cold germs from the last class have touched the frosting and the sugar spreading lots of germs. Some of the 5th graders teased about eating the whole skull in a day. Others followed Senora Kennerly’s directions and did not eat the infected skulls. “I’m not going to eat my sugar skull.” Says 5th grader, Sara. “I don’t want to get sick.” Will you eat the sugar skulls? Have a delicious snack but get sick? Or keep it until it rots but not get sick? You choose.