Mexican Art Identification Game

Teacher's Guide

By Carol Schlenk


Introduction

The artistic heritage of Mexico, home to an array of ancient civilizations dating from 1000 B.C., is celebrated in Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries. The artwork in this collection documents the immense cultural richness of Mexico, spanning over three thousand years, and is divided into four major eras, or time periods.

Lesson Focus

After studying characteristics of each era as presented in the exhibit and in this game, students will try to identify which era each of 20 art works belongs to. Each time students correctly identify an image, they will win points and unveil a small part of a famous Mexican painting ("Self Portrait with Monkeys", by Frida Kahlo), which will appear onscreen for them.

Vocabulary

  • Pre-Columbian - before Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas


  • Vice-Regal - the 300 year long colonial period, when Mexico was ruled by Spain


  • jade - hard, greenish stone used for jewelry and ornaments


  • mural - picture painted on a wall


  • elaborate - carefully worked out with great detail


  • portrait - painting or drawing of a person


  • landscape - painting of an outdoor scene


  • still life - painting of inanimate objects


  • genre - style of realistic paining that protrays everday life, events & manners


  • surrealistic - style of art characterized by dreamlike rearrangements or distortions of objects


Extension Activity - Mexican Folk Art

Folk Art, is traditionally produced by the common people of Mexico for daily use in their homes or for local celebrations of religious and secular events. Divide the class into groups. Have each group use the library and Internet (see related website below) to research the origins of one of the following examples of Mexican folk art. Then help students produce examples of it the art they chose from this list:s

  • Papel Picados
  • Dance Masks
  • Day of the Dead bread (Migajon)
  • Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls
  • Piñatas
  • Animalitos
  • Retablos
  • Huichol Yarn Paintings
Create a Mexican Folk Art exhibit in your school, with student research each type of art displayed as text on colored posterboard next to examples of their art.

Meeting Curriculum Standards with the “Mexican Art Identification Game”

This learning activity fits within the following national voluntary curriculum standards:

Social Studies

Culture
Time, Continuity & Change
People, Places & Environment
Global Connections
English, Language Arts

Reading for Information
Use of Technology and Informational Resources
This activity also meets the following standards from the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) for high school grades 9-12:

Social Studies (World History Studies)
History 1,3,4,6,7
Culture 20,21,22