Spooky Spanish: Interactive Guatemala Kites

Spooky Spanish: Interactive Guatemala Kites

An interactive KS3 Spanish homework on Guatemala’s giant kites: colourful messages flown to loved ones on the Day of the Dead!

Kites as big as a house… flying messages to the dead! On 1 November in Sumpango and Santiago Sacatepéquez, Guatemala, families fly enormous, colourful barriletes over the cemeteries. For the Maya people, the wind carries the messages up to their ancestors. Three short, self-checking tasks:
• Lee y descubre: two short texts with tap-to-translate words and audio, a keyword match and true/false.
• ¿Cuál es el barrilete?: read each description and tap the right kite (colours with es and tiene).
• ¿Cuánto mide?: a listening task with numbers 2–22 (doce or dos? dieciséis or seis?), with a text option for devices with no sound. Finish it and the kites fly up the screen!

What’s included
• Interactive HTML page: works offline in any browser, on computers, tablets and phones
• 1-page worksheet that matches the web page, ending with “draw and describe your own kite”
• Teacher page with answers, a cultural note, and the texts with translations
• Optional student vocab list (2 per page, to print and cut)

Perfect for homework: each task unlocks letters of a secret code word. Students write it on the worksheet, so you can see at a glance who finished.

Language covered: present tense; colours; es + adjective and tiene + noun; numbers 2–22 (listening); mide… metros; barrilete (Guatemala) vs cometa (Spain).

Flexible use: homework, a starter or plenary, cover lessons, or a Día de Muertos / Todos los Santos lesson (15–20 minutes). It pairs well with Misión Ofrenda (Mexico).

Part of the Spooky Spanish series: Fiestas misteriosas, spooky celebrations from Spain and now Latin America: San Andrés de Teixido · Samaín · La Santa Compaña · Santa Marta de Ribarteme · Las brujas de Zugarramurdi · Todos los Santos en Madrid · El Colacho · El Correfoc · La Noche de los Finaos · Tosantos en Cádiz · La Queimada y las meigas · Gau Beltza (FREE)

VLE tip: upload the HTML file to Teams, Google Classroom or your VLE. Students open it in a browser and their progress is saved on their device.