This is the story of a famous Mexican artist/muralist, Diego Rivera.  It is written in simple text so that even young children can love and appreciate the inspiration of his vibrant colors and style.  It is a good way to introduce fine arts to children.

Materials

• Visit the Diegorivera.com web site to find a picture that you can share with the children. I have chosen La Noche de los Pores.                                  
• Colored chalk
• Watercolors
• A variety of paper types to watercolor on (construction, printer, waxed, cardboard, and newspaper).                         

Vocabulary

• Artist (Someone who creates paintings or other creative works)
• Mural (a very large painting, usually painted onto a wall)

Before Reading the Story

Show the children the picture that you have chosen and begin by encouraging the children to talk about the picture.  What do they see?  How many people are in the picture?  What are they doing?  Do you see the baby wrapped in the blue blanket?  Do you ever nap or rest with your family members?  How do you feel when you are all snuggled in with your family?

Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness to learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks.

Explain that this picture was painted by a man named Diego Rivera.  Mr. Rivera was an artist.  Tell the children that they also are artists.  When they draw or paint they are making art work.  Explain that some people choose to be artists for a job.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness if jobs and what is required to perform them.

Reading the Story

Introduce the book.  As you read, note the images on the pages.  Talk about how Diego drew things that he saw in the world.  Note any picture hanging on the wall that a child might have drawn that depicts something from their life.  Let the children know that they are artists too.

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences.

After Reading the Story

Tell the children that today you are going to all practice being artists.  Explain that some artists are painters like Diego and other artists are dancers and sculptures, and actors, and singers.  Explain that today we are going to use our imaginations and creativity to be artists.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness of jobs and what is required of them.

Discovery

Let the children experiment with water color paints on a variety of paper types.

Science/Scientific Skills & Methods; develops increased ability to observe and discuss common properties, differences and comparisons among objects and materials.

Music and Movement

 Sing or chant  The Rainbow Song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRTdq0VsLGQ

Red and yellow and pink and green,

Purple and orange and blue.

I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow

How about you?

(give children slips of color and as you sing, they can hold up their colors accordingly)

Mathematics/Geometry & Spatial Sense; shows growth in matching, sorting, putting in a series, and regrouping objects according to one or two attributes such as color, shape, or size.

Put on instrumental music and give each child a scarf. Encourage them to dance with the scarf.  Can they throw the scarf into the air and then catch it, twirl it over their head, or make a circle around their body?   Explain that dancers are a different kind of artist

Creative Arts/Movement; expresses through movement and dancing what is felt and heard in various musical tempos and styles.  AND Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multi-step directions.

Blocks

Diego used to make murals on walls.  Ask the children if they can build a large wall today.

Language Development/Listening & Understanding; shows progress in understanding and following simple and multi-step directions.  AND Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor SKills; grows in hand-eye coordination in building with blocks, putting together puzzles, reproducing shapes and patterns, stringing beads, and using scissors.

Art

Put pieces of dark construction paper on the easel today and let the children draw with colored chalk.  Try dipping the chalk into a cup of water for a different effect. 

Creative Arts/Art; gains ability in using different art media and materials in a variety of ways for creative expression and representation.

Put a still life on the table and encourage the children to try to draw what they see.  This should be something simple like several flowers in a vase or a stick with leaves attached.

Creative Arts/ Art; progresses in abilities to create drawings, paintings, models,  and other art  creations that are more detailed, creative, or realistic.

Library and Writing

Bring in art books that the children can look through. As the children look, talk about the images on the page.  Help the children be aware of art and artistic styles.

Literacy/Book Knowledge & Appreciation; shows growing interest in reading-related activities, such as asking to have a favorite book read; choosing to look at books; drawing pictures based on stories; asking to take books home; going to the library;and engaging in pretend-reading with other children.  AND Approaches to Learning/Initiative & Curiosity; grows in eagerness t learn about and discuss a growing range of topics, ideas, and tasks.

Have the children are practice writing their names today, explain to them that artists should always write their names on their artwork so that people will know who painted or drew the beautiful work.  

Literacy/Early Writing; progresses from using scribbles, shapes, or pictures to represent ideas, to using letter-like symbols, to copying or writing familiar words such as their own name.  AND Literacy/Early Writing; develops understanding that writing is a way of communicating for a variety of purposes.

Sand and Water

Dampen the sand today and add plastic bowls or sand forms to fill and make castles/shapes.  Tell the children that they are like sculptures creating shapes in the sand.  For young children this can be slightly difficult.  Show them how to count 1-2-3 and then quickly turn the plastic form over, tap the top lightly and carefully pull off the form to expose the shaped sand.

Physical Health & Development/Fine Motor Skills; develops growing strength, dexterity, and control needed to use tools such as scissors, paper punch, stapler, and hammer.

Dramatic Play

Put out a doctor kit today.  Remind the children that Diego spent much of his childhood very ill. Encourage the children to pretend to be doctors and get the dolls or each other well.

Social & Emotional Development/Knowledge of Families & Communities; develops growing awareness if jobs and what is required to perform them.

Outdoor Play

            Ahead of time take a large roll of paper and draw a simple mural outline.  It could be something like a flower garden or a giant school bus.  Tape it to the wall or fence and then bring out your paints and encourage all the children to help paint the mural.  Praise the children for all working so well together on the mural. You can suggest that they try to stay inside the lines but do not worry if they do not.  If you add flour to the paint, it will thicken it so that it is less drippy.

Social & Emotional Development/Cooperation; shows increasing abilities to use compromise and discussion in working, playing, and resolving conflicts with peers.

Take chalk outside to draw on the sidewalk.

Transitions

Bring in a second artwork by Diego or another artist. As the children move to the next activity,  ask each to answer a specific questions that related to the art work or to make an observation about the piece.

Creative Arts/Art; begins to understand and share opinions about artistic products and experiences.

Resources