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Frida Kahlo in the Elementary Spanish Classroom

Like me, perhaps you are fascinated and inspired by the life and works of Frida Kahlo. Her determination, creativity and artistic brilliance are amazing and have thoroughly affected both Mexican and world culture. Bringing Frida into the elementary Spanish classroom has become easier and easier with a host of kid-friendly resources that allow the Spanish teacher to provide an age appropriate view into her life and paintings. Here are some of my favorites:


*Frida's World is an app for tablets with lovely illustrations and a storybook kids can read and/or listen to. It also includes a cute coloring book which kids love!


*Patchanimals has just created this wonderful coloring page! Kids draw in their own face and color! How cool!


*Museo Frida Kahlo has an amazing website for kids to explore Frida's house. You can visit a variety of rooms in her house, each with interactive components which are a delight! Museo Frida Kahlo also has a Facebook page which posts daily....a great page to become a fan of if you are a Spanish teacher!


*What little girl doesn't love to play with paper dolls? These are beautifully rendered but hard for little hands to cut out so I've printed out 5 sets of these, cut them out myself and keep them on my activity shelf for fast finishers. Even the boys get into them! You can find them here.



*I love this video! Made in Argentina, it is a wonderful short clip about her life and art. Though my Second Graders can't understand everything, they are able to pick out a fair amount of vocabulary! And, watching this after an introduction to Frida's life, they have a context for what is shown.





*Frida by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Ana Juan is by far my favorite biography of Frida for kids. The illustrations are to die for and the text is clear and very kid friendly. I particularly like how it focuses on her childhood.



*Our very own printable minibook and Activity pack about Frida's life. Using simple sentences for each page, 'Pepita lee sobre Frida Kahlo' is a perfect way for kiddos to learn key facts about her biography in Spanish! Along with the minibook, our Activity pack features a host of fun activities to reinforce vocabulary in the story and have kids create their own short autobiography and self portrait. You can find it in our TpT shop here.




*Lil Libros offers this wonderful Frida inspired counting book which makes a great addition to your classroom library!






*In my Second Grade classes kiddos have the opportunity to indicate (and practice vocabulary!) how they feel about a collection of Frida's paintings using 'me gusta', 'me gusta mucho' and 'no me gusta'.  I have done this two different ways- hanging the paintings in the hallway so kiddos can go out to mark charts I've hung underneath each painting a few at a time while others are creating self portraits inspired by Frida. I've also had all the paintings laid out in our circle and kids rotate around the circle marking each chart as they go. The charts have spaces underneath each header (me gusta, me gusta mucho, and no me gusta) for check marks or x's. Kids love to do this!

Liked this post? Check out our post on bringing Celia Cruz into your classroom, too! Click here to read it!

How do you bring Frida Kahlo into your classroom?



2 comments

  1. Love both activities. We will use the Frida and the Celia books in rotations in the library on Monday.

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