A Day with Frida

A country study of Mexico wouldn't be complete without the study of a few important Mexican artists.  We started our Mexican art study with Frida Kahlo and self-portraits.  I took a variety of lessons I found online and mixed them to make an easy and fun lesson.

Before we started Mister and Ladybug used Kool Aid to create a textured "canvas".  

While the Kool Aid was drying, we read Frida.  She story was simple for Mister and Ladybug to understand, without being scary, and the illustrations are beautiful.  

Then, we looked at six self portraits of Frida.  I didn't tell them who the woman was, but they saw connections between the illustrations in the book and the self-portraits.  Mister called out, "It's Frida!"  We studied the pictures and talked about the vibrant colors and a reason why there might be so many animals in her pictures.  I created my own self-portrait and I asked Mister and Ladybug to help me make a list of words to describe me.  

Our canvas was dry by now, so we made our own self-portraits.

I brought out the Learning Room mirror to help them with their portraits.

I used tape to make a border and some of her drawing was cut off by taking the tape off .  It's titled, "Halle and her dog Zoe."

Ladybug was so happy with her result that she asked me to put it on her door.

Preaparing the Molcajete

I have had my molcajete and tejolote sitting as a display piece for a really long time.  For some reason it intimidated me although I am a pretty good cook.  I made a resolve to use it, so I enlisted the kiddos to help me prepare and use the molcajete for the first time.

First, I set out the molcajete and we inspected it.  I had Mister and Ladybug guess what it was and from what material it was made.  Also, we watched how a molcajete was made.

Then it was time to prepare and make our guacamole.

Ladybug grinding up salt.

The Wee One seasoning the molcajete with garlic gloves and cumin.

Mister grinding up avocados for the guacamole.

Our finished guacamole.  I didn't get a single drop of the guacamole because they enjoyed it that much.    

My molcajete was relatively smooth and didn't need much work, so we sped up the preparing process.  We also made baked tortilla chips and had frijoles.

Our Easy and Kid Friendly Guacamole

2 avocados
1/2 Onion
Tomato
Cilantro
Lime