Mexican artist extraordinaire was born and raised in a famously blue house (La Casa Azul, now a museum). She suffered from many physical ailments, some due to polio she contracted at age 6, and others to the horrific bus accident she endured at 18. Therefore, her pain and isolation informed much of her work; she’s most well-known for her self-portraits. Kahlo is also known for her advocacy for women and indigenous people. In addition, Frida is also well known for her marriage to the famous painter and muralist Diego Rivera.

Artists teach essential lessons beyond the pages of our sketchbooks. Frida, having lived through so much physical pain in her life, teaches us much about perseverance. Even with all the pain (and over 30 surgeries) in her life, Frida still dressed in beautiful clothes, wore rings on her fingers, and is now famous for all the flowers, ribbons, and bows she wore in her hair. Learn about Frida Kahlo from my four-year-old daughter in THIS VIDEO. She breaks it down so well!! My favorite moment is at 30 seconds (those eyebrows )!

Frida Kahlo Collaboration Posters

My collaborative posters of Frida Kahlo are a fun way to start a lesson about her or end a unit of study. They are also perfect all on their own. They work great any time of the year and especially during Hispanic Heritage Month.

I have a portrait poster of Frida that, when finished, is approx. 35″ x 42″ when complete. The poster is made up of 30 pages (8.5″x 11″ paper). To do this project, each child gets one piece of the overall poster and colors their portion of the poster. Then they color their piece and cut it out. Finally, the pieces are attached to reveal the final portrait of Frida!

You can see my Frida Kahlo Portrait Poster HERE.

The Frame Collaboration Poster

I also have a collaboration poster of Frida’s artwork, The Frame. I love this artwork so much that I made it part of my Measuring Masterpieces art project for kids, and I painted it as a large mural on my house.

This poster has the color key available in English and Spanish. The idea is the same as the portrait poster above. To start this lesson, each child is given a portion of the final poster, with instructions to color it. Then the pieces are cut out, and finally, the pieces are assembled to reveal the final artwork. This might sound like a simple formula that would always result in the same outcome.

…but oh no, that is not the case.

Teachers and students always do so many creative things with my projects. At times they follow the assigned colors. Other times they do their own thing. Crayons are often used, and other times paints are used to color the final poster.

But no matter what, they look amazing…

…and sometimes they even “color” using yarn as @yellow_door_artstudio did.

You can see my collaboration poster of Frida’s The Frame HERE.

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Group collaboration posters are a lot of fun and serve an important role in having children work together,  but students don’t get to keep anything at the end of the day. That is why I always include bonus individual resources in each of my collaborative posters.

These resources are FREE for you here on my blog by signing up for my email list.

• • • Quote coloring pages for Picasso, Dali, Kahlo, and O’Keeffe.
    • Unscramble the drawing for Picasso, Dali, Kahlo, and O’Keeffe.
    • Unscramble–cut and paste for Picasso, Dali, Kahlo, and O’Keeffe (pictured below).

Collaborative Wings Mural

Frida Kahlo Wings Mural: Frida is a constant source of inspiration to me (my daughter and students). I originally wrote this blog post years ago. I have come back to update and add to it. This year (2021), I created Frida-inspired collaborative wings using her quote, “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?”

I designed this project for Hispanic Heritage Month. Then it was displayed at my daughter’s school so children could stand in front of the wings and take their pictures. You can see my daughter pictured below (same little girls as the one in the video up above—growing up fast).

Tested and approved! 

Meet the Master Artist

Teaching students about Frida is pretty easy because she is such a fascinating person. However, finding the time to research her and organize a way to teach about her can be entirely different, especially with all that is asked of teachers these days.

Insert my “Meet the Master Artist” series of art projects to the rescue! My art history projects are time-saving, engaging, and easy lessons you can use at home, in your classroom, or in an art room. In addition to each project featuring an artist, each lesson includes a biography video, three different levels, all the handouts you need to teach the lesson, and more.

See my Meet the Master Artist: Frida Kahlo lesson HERE.

Frida Kahlo Books

To start a lesson, I often use a book related to the artist I’m teaching to my students. Then, as children finish their assignments, I always have books available for them to choose to read. You can go to your local library or your school library to get some of these books.

However, if you have a terrible habit of buying lots of books, as I do, then here are a few of my favorites. Please note these images are affiliate links to Amazon (see disclosure here). I’ve listed them in order by my favorite—the top image is my favorite of these books! Click on images to see more

Frida Kahlo Coloring Books: I have this Frida Kahlo coloring book and love it—it’s a lot of fun for adults and kids!

More Fun Frida Ideas!

Pin the Flowers on Frida: I created this “Pin the Flowers on Frida” idea for a fundraiser at my daughter’s school. You can read the entire post HERE for all the details.

Frida Kahlo Costume: If you are teaching upper elementary, middle school (or high), then no doubt you have students that love to dress up. I’ve known many teachers who like to re-create famous paintings with their students for a live museum type of project. This one from The House That Lars Built  is probably my favorite:

Shadow Boxes: You could easily do this next project with shoeboxes your students can bring in from home. You can find the details for this project from Live Colorful.

Thank you for reading and for making art with your students. I hope these Frida Kahlo activities are helpful to you and your students.

Jenny K.

Art with Jenny K. LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.