When you are teaching about a famous Hispanic painting in Spanish class, your students may struggle to analyze or interpret the painting beyond the surface level. Your job as their Spanish teacher is to get them to talk about the painting in the target language. But HOW?! That is a big ask for most high school students, even in their first language.
I’ve created a list of 11 activities to analyze ANY painting in Spanish class. It could be a self portrait by Frida Kahlo or a large-scale mural by Rivera or even a painting of the royal family by Velázquez. No matter which painting you are sharing with your students, ANY of these activities below will make your lesson more engaging, create deeper conversations, and get students interested in art.
All of these activities work well with individual paintings or a collection of paintings. For example, during a unit on Frida Kahlo, you could post a handful of her paintings around the room and each group could be responsible for completing the activity with their given painting and then rotate.
Before you dive into these 11 activities, I encourage you to join me in my community of teachers on Facebook for my Teaching Art in Spanish Facebook Group. We share ideas and resources for teaching art in the Spanish classroom. A favorite feature of the group is that every week I share about different Hispanic artists with a Meet the Artist spotlight. You won’t want to miss out.
1. Art Vocabulary
In Spanish class, our “art” vocabulary is pretty limited. I mean how often are you teaching words like “foreground,” “shadows,” and “lighting.” Students do not need to be experts in art vocabulary in the target language, but it does help to know these words for an art unit. My suggestion is to start your art unit by giving them a long list of art vocabulary words just to keep as reference. You don’t need to quiz them on it, but they should always be able to use it when describing artworks.
To practice these new vocabulary words in context, show a painting and have them do presentational writing or speaking to describe the painting. Require them to use at least 10 new words from the list. You can grab a free list of art vocabulary for Spanish class here (along with your first art lesson completely done!)
2. Scavenger Hunt / I Spy
Turn any painting into a scavenger hunt. Before you show your students the painting, come up with a list of items students must look for or count in the painting. For example, how many people, how many cars, etc. Can you find something red? Can you find something that symbolizes peace? Where is the deer?
This works best when the painting has a lot of details or you use a collection of paintings around your classroom. Example: How many paintings have moons? How many cars do you see in this painting?
3. Describe and Draw
Choose 2 paintings for Describe and Draw. For this activity, only half of your students should see the first painting. The other half of the class should keep their eyes closed or sit back-to-back with a student who has the painting. Student A (has the painting) will use the target language to describe it to their classmate. Student B (does not see the painting) will need a blank piece of paper. As Student A describes the painting to them, they will draw what they hear. When done, have students compare their drawing to the original painting.
To be fair, make sure you have two paintings for this so each student gets a chance to describe. You will also want to have a list of helpful vocabulary terms or art related terms handy.
4. Be the Docent
Students can practice presentational writing or speaking with this activity. Provide students with a painting. You can analyze it together, talk about color, themes, symbols, artist intent, etc. Then, students can summarize what they learned in one of two ways.
The first is with a written description of the painting that would appear next to it in an art gallery. The second is acting as the museum docent giving a tour to a group of museum-goers. The docent (student) would give a short verbal presentation on the painting, its history, meaning, etc.
5. Use Emojis
Emojis are a student’s love language, especially in a world language classroom. With one simple emoji, everyone knows what you mean. Let them use emojis in one of these ways:
- Use one emoji to represent how this painting makes you feel. Then describe why in the target language.
- Use 3-5 emojis to label parts of the painting. For example: 🤷♀️ when you are confused, 😍 for your favorite part of the painting, and ❗for what they think is the most important part.
6. Color Mood Mapping
Here is a great option for novice students. As you display the painting, have students list all of the colors that they see. Then, tie each color to an emotion. Using the “psychology of colors,” students will be able to use even one simple word to say that in this painting “rojo representa peligro” or “morado representa realeza.”
7. Five Senses
Art is more than meets the eye. You should be doing more than just “looking” at a painting with your students. Let them jump into the painting with their 5 senses. What do they hear? Taste? Touch? Smell? One of my favorite paintings to do this with is Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Time. It is a painting that is truly up to interpretation and when students take the time to place themselves there, they notice details that they might have missed because they are so focused on the melting clocks.
Using your five senses in the target language is also extremely effective for building creative writing skills. Learn how I guide my students through a 5-senses brainstorm in the target language here.
8. Add Speech Bubbles
A painting is worth a thousand words. Or in this case, a few quotes. Let your students get creative by adding speech bubbles to paintings that have images of people. Then, they will write what they think the person could be saying. You could also let them use thought bubbles instead, so they can express what the person is thinking to themselves.
9. Divide and Conquer
The Divide and Conquer activity works best for murals or really busy paintings. The teacher should divide the mural or painting into sections prior to assigning it to the class. Then, assign each section of the painting to a small group of students. If you have 4 sections of a mural, then create 4 small groups.
Each group is responsible for identifying what they see in their section, including symbols, historical elements, color, theme, etc. But the key to the success of this activity is that each group also reflects on how their section fits into the painting as a whole. Two of my favorite murals to do this with are Guernica by Pablo Picasso and Pan American Unity by Diego Rivera. (There is even a website that divides and yes, even conquers this one for you! Grab my accompanying scavenger hunt worksheets here.)
10. Label the Symbols
The most fascinating artwork to analyze is filled with symbolism. You will get the most interesting and unique responses from your students when there is no right or wrong answer. Find a painting that has symbolism, even something simple like a Frida Kahlo self portrait. What symbols do they see? Novice students can simply label them: monkey, thorns, hummingbird. Intermediate/Advanced can express what they represent and even connect it to the artist’s motivation or biography.
11. Silent Gallery Walk
Display the painting (or in this case even a variety of paintings) around the classroom. If you use one painting, this is a good station activity because you cannot have your entire class doing this at once. With a variety of paintings around the room, the silent gallery walk works seamlessly.
Students will remain completely silent. There is no chatting with a partner or small group discussions, yet. Give every student a few post-it notes. I found that these gallery walks work well with the really large white boards I get at Home Depot – they are easy to store and you just need dry erase markers (no post-its!)
- Step 1: With the first post-it note, they will start by writing a question they have about the painting in Spanish, a question they would ask the artist, or even write a sentence about their interpretation of the painting. Now, they are ready to post this note somewhere near the painting.
- Step 2: Once every student has posted one note, they will now walk around and read what their classmates wrote.
- Step 3: Students will choose ONE note to respond to. If it is a question, they can write what they think a potential answer could be. If they are responding to a statement, they can add a fact, agree and add more details, or even debate what someone wrote.
- Step 4 and so on: You can repeat step 3 as many times as you want, depending on class size and how many paintings you have. They can and SHOULD be able to respond to responses. Each original post-it note could have a trail of 5 or more responses!
- Final Step: Students can circulate around the room and read the responses. Encourage students to go back to their original posts to see the conversation that stemmed from it. You should walk around as well, and then highlight any key findings or interesting “discussions: you read.
12. Title It
Some paintings have very obvious titles. Sometimes they are more abstract titles that make you think. Either way, they can always use some reworking 😉 For this activity, students are in charge of giving the painting a title. It is up to you if you want to share the original title first and have students rename it or just show the painting and talk about it, then let students tell you what they the title of the painting in Spanish should be. It is fun to compare their new titles to the original.
Hispanic Art Blog Posts
If you’re ready to jump into these activities, but are now thinking, “Well what artworks should I start with?” then check out these blog posts. They are my complete lesson plans for teaching about the main Hispanic artists. But as I said before, if you want to explore the world of lesser-known artists, join my Facebook group for Teaching Art in Spanish class.
- Frida Kahlo Lessons
- Diego Rivera Lessons
- Pablo Picasso Lessons
- Salvador Dali Lessons
- Turning Your Classroom into an Art Gallery
- Full Hispanic Art Unit Plans
Teaching painting in Spanish doesn’t have to feel overwhelming—for you or your students. With the right activities, any artwork can become a meaningful entry point for communication, creativity, and cultural connection in the target language. Whether your students are describing details, interpreting symbols, or sharing personal reactions, these strategies help move them beyond surface-level observations and into real Spanish use. Choose one activity or mix and match a few, and you’ll quickly see how analyzing a painting in Spanish can build confidence, spark discussion, and make art an engaging part of your Spanish classroom all year long.
So, find your favorite painting in Spanish class and try out these activities!
