¡Soy un artista!

After spending a month in Spain this summer and seeing SOOO much great art at the Museu Picasso and the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona as well as the Prado and Reina Sofia in Madrid, I decided I needed to add more art to my curriculum.

Works by Joan Miró in Barcelona

THIS SECTION WAS UPDATED IN 2019

I always start the year off with kindergarten with the learning targets of "I can identify 4 colors in a Joan Miró painting," "I can list 4 school supplies I use in class," and "I can introduce myself."

First we learned the colors two at a time. We practiced by playing the Color Point game (I say ¿Dónde está rojo? and students have to find it in the room and point.) We practiced the school supplies with a chant and by doing our Flotan o No Flotan activity. 

We also watched the Calico Spanish video Colores Colores. They love this video and it gets them used to hearing the phrase Me gusta.



Once we had all the colors learned we looked at el arte. I showed students a picture of Joan Miró and we described the colors that we saw and if we liked the picture or not. We also learned that "Joan Miró era un artista. ¡Yo soy un artista!" This tied into our other learning target of introducing ourselves. They turned and introduced themselves to a partner and we played Hand Up, Pair Up.

Finally, we created our own Miró inspired arte. The first class we used los papeles,  un lápiz, y los crayones. In the second class we added our names and a few stars with sharpie markers. 

I think the results came out really well. And the best part is that students not only know their colors and how to introduce themselves but they know a little more of the culture as well. 

Another great resource is the book El arte tiene colores.

Do you teach works of art in your classes? I'd love to hear from you and get ideas on how to use more art in my classroom! Share in the comments below or on Twitter using the hashtag #earlylang.