"This project touched on so many different aspects of the students' heritage," said fifth-grade teacher Betty Olson-Jones. "Their ancestors started to come alive for them."

The "ofrenda," items placed on an altar meant as an offering to honor the dead is part of a Mexican and Central American tradition that honors ancestors during the Days of the Dead, or Dios de los Muertos celebration. It typically kicks off on Nov. 1 each year.

More than 50 students worked with Olson-Jones, fifth-grade teacher Barbara Schmidt, and artist-in-residence Debra Koppman for a month to prepare their exhibit.

Their project is part of 11 installations to be exhibited at Oakland Museum's 12th annual program. This year's theme, "CaliVera," is a twist on the word "calavera," meaning skeleton is Spanish, and focuses on California's connection with the traditional holiday, said Evelyn Orantes, the museum's cultural arts developer.

The exhibit is expected to draw 17,000 visitors, including 6,000 students, Orantes said. This year, projects representing deaths in the gay and lesbian community, Hurricane Katrina, Iraq, the Asian tsunami, and one from Longfellow Middle School in Berkeley, were included.

After taking her students to the exhibit for eight years, Olson-Jones asked to participate. Every year, at least two school groups are included. Sequoia's exhibit is a collection of puppets, with poems and self-portrait drawings that tie the students' everyday lives with their ancestors.

Koppman's students started with a wooden spoon base and formed the shapes of their puppet's head using flour dough, salt and water. From pictures and memories, each student added details such as eyeglasses, short stubbly hair, big lips, and embroidered cloth to represent an ancestor he or she wanted to honor.

The self-portraits represented the students' present identity and poetry titled "Where I'm From" connected their past with their present.

Students wrote about their culture, foods, phrases, memories and images in their lives. The writing process became an interactive learning exercise as students gave feedback and encouraged one another in their storytelling, said Olson-Jones.

"It's very powerful and important for our students to speak about death in a way that might be healing and acknowledge that they come from many people," Schmidt said.

The poems are hung with "papeles picados," cut paper symbolizing sacred banners that indigenous people such as the Aztecs used as offerings to the gods, Orantes said.

Another common element in Days of the Dead altars -- paper flowers, representing marigold flowers -- lies at the base of the students' ofrenda. The pungent smell of the flowers is supposed to guide the spirit to the altar, Orantes said.

Koppman said the students also realized that the connection between them and their family could come from art.

"Children are very critical of themselves," Schmidt said. "But one day, they'll think back and remember, 'I was an artist in a museum.'"