Mexico's Diego Rivera at Washington School
Thanks to the generosity of the PTO for funding the Diego Rivera Traveling Exhibit, it was a huge success! This two-week exhibit inspired great cross-curricular learning in various specials classes. Three large Diego Rivera murals were brought to Washington and hung in our hallways.
All students in grades 2-5 Spanish class spent two lessons learning about the life of Mexican artist, Diego Rivera and the messages he tried to express through his murals and paintings about Mexican history and culture. The lessons sparked natural conversation in Spanish on subjects that Rivera liked to paint. Each morning, Mrs. Nasshan or Mr. Ophus would ask Diego Rivera trivia questions based on the lessons learned in Spanish class.
After looking at the exhibited murals and paintings of Diego Rivera, all the Washington students are taking part in creating one large school mural inspired by Rivera’s Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park. The process involves two steps; first they painted a mural background with trees and various landscape, and now the students are creating themselves in the style of Diego Rivera using simple shapes and bright colors. Look for it in the hallway, coming soon!!
As a way to connect the cross-curricular lesson into P.E., students in select 4th and 5th grade P.E. classes learned to dance “la cumbia” to the tune of “La Cumbia de los Muertos”–a famous song known in Hispanic culture which is popular during Mexico’s famous holiday, el Día de los Muertos.
Overall, the experience in learning about Diego Rivera gave an opportunity for students who have never visited an art museum or who have not been exposed to Mexican art to see beautiful murals and paintings up close. Connecting various specials together brought about an integrated learning experience where students used prior knowledge learned in one area and applied it to another. Muchas gracias a la Organización de Padres y Maestras (Thank you very much Washington PTO!) We look forward to the next exhibit on Pablo Picasso………coming in January!!
This article was prepared by Ms Tricia Nagel, foreign language teacher at Washington School and PREA member.
