Learning About Frida

* This lesson would follow a geography lesson that focused on Mexico.

Grade Level: First

Total Time: 30 min

Key Concepts:

· Cause and Effect

· Frida Kahlo painted self-portraits to help herself feel better.

Objectives: By listening to a read-aloud of Frida, answering text related questions, and viewing examples of Frida Kahlo’s self portraits, students will learn to recognize Frida’s work, answer questions about her life, and create a personal self portrait symbolizing what makes them feel better during difficult times.

EALRs addressed:

· Social Studies Skills: Analyzes Cause and Effect Relationships (Math 1.4): Investigates cause and effect relationships and their impact on people, environments, and economic systems

· 3.3.1a Know that people are born into societies that consist of different racial, ethnic, religious, and/or social groups (Location, Region, Place)

Pre-Assessment:

· Cause and effect questions from previously read stories.

· During previous lesson, ask class if they know of any famous people who come from Mexico

Instructional Resources:

· Frida by: Jonah Winter

· Three examples of Frida’s self portraits (choose ones with plant and animal backgrounds)

Teaching Procedures:

Opening: (3 min) Yesterday in class we were learning about a country that was different from the United States, does anybody remember what it was (Mexico)? What are some things you remember about Mexico?(Activate Prior Knowledge) People that live in Mexico do a lot of the same things that people in out country do. Can you think of some things that people do here that people in Mexico would also do? (Reasoning) (field responses, ask leading questions if necessary) Do you think some people in Mexico might like to dance? (Reasoning) Etc…

Think Pair Share/Bridge: (5 min) Raise your hand if you like to paint. When do you like to paint? (Dispositions) Why do you like to paint? (Dispositions) Take a minute to think about it and then talk to your neighbor. Be ready to share your ideas with the class. Well, today we are going to learn about a very famous painter who grew up in Mexico, her name is Frida Kahlo.

Read Aloud: (10 min) To help us learn about Frida, we are going to read a book that tells us about her life.

Stopping Points and questions:

1. Page 1: What things do you see in this picture of Mexico? (Knowledge)

2. “Drawing saves her from being sad”. - Why do you think drawing would help someone who was feeling sad? (Reasoning)

3. “A trolley runs into the bus. Frida almost dies”. –What do you think Frida will do now? (Prediction)

4. “When her whole torso is put in a cast, she paints on the cast”. -Have any of you ever had a cast? Did you draw on it? (Facilitate Personal Connection) What things did you do to help yourself feel better? (Dispositions)

5. “She paints what se sees in her heart”. -What do you think that means? (Reasoning)

Post Reading Reflection: (3 min)

1. What happened to Frida that made her life so hard? (Knowledge) She was in a bus accident

2. What did she do to help her deal with the pain? (Knowledge) She painted

Picture Viewing: (6 min) Raise your hand if you would like to see examples of pictures that Frida Painted? Display three examples of Frida’s self-portraits. What do all of these paintings have in common? (Synthesis) (Introduce the term self portrait here) Can you find anything else that is similar in all of these paintings? (Synthesis) In the book, it said that Frida sometimes liked to paint pictures of things that made her feel better. By looking at these paintings, what do you think helped Frida feel better? (Reasoning) Animals and Plants Frida painted monkeys because she lived with them and they made her happy. In Mexico, Frida had a pet monkey, do any of you have pets that make you happy? (Personal Connection)

Closure: (3 min) Tomorrow in class we are going to do some painting. If we wanted to paint like Frida, what could we do? (Knowledge) Paint pictures of ourselves What kinds of things could we put in out paintings? Things that make us feel better At home, I have a pet cat who I love very much, maybe, I could paint her in my picture! Do any of you have ideas of things that make you happy that you could paint? (Personal Connection) One way of learning about different places in the world is learning about people that come from there. I am glad we could all learn more about Mexico by learning about Frida.

Accommodations:

Students with ADHD:

· Provide a visual organizer off all lesson components. Review all lesson steps before going on to teach.

· TPS allows time to talk

· Questioning allows time to talk and breaks apart the listening task into smaller sections.

· Offer a small group review of Frida’s paintings at the start of the painting activity on day 2.

· Have students hold up the paintings that are being discussed. This allows for movement and gives the hands an immediate task.

Assessment Procedures for Lesson Goals:a.) Administer multiple-choice quiz in class. Read all questions and possible answers aloud. Ask if anyone needs a repeat. Check for answer accuracy.

b.) Students will paint self- portraits during the following class that include images of things that make them feel better when they are feeling bad. Students should be able to explain why they painted certain images in their painting to the teacher (while checking in on student progress during painting activity).

Examples of Frida’s self-portraits for in-class discussion (enlarge each to full page before printing):