For kids taking Spanish 3 either right now or in the near future they’re required to do a series of paintings for the class based on five famous Spanish Painters. These five famous painters are Grecco, who did religious paintings, Velazques, who did a bunch of realism and photo realistic paintings, Goya who paintings often looked like nightmares to reflect his deteriorating mental state, Picasso who was the father of cubism, and Dali who did surrealism. Students will do one watercolor painting per class in the style of each of the five painters. According to Ms.Martinez they’ve been doing this for Spanish 3 for at least 15 years.

The kids taking Spanish 3 love doing this unit. They get to use paint with watercolors all class and each of the students has a favorite artist they like. 

“I like him (Grecco) because he’s a very spiritual guy,” said Jack Coulter. 

“I think he’s (Goya) going to be my favorite because he does a lot more darker tones. He draws about nightmares and stuff like that,” said Marie Wheeler.

“I like Diego Velazques. I like the realism, I like how it almost looks like a photograph, “ said Lizzie Webber. 

Not only do the students get to paint in the styles of the painters, they also get to learn the personal history of the painters too. For example, Goya was a painter who was affected by an unknown illness which affected his life, even his art, with his painting getting darker and more disturbing the life he went on. At the end of the unit, there’s a quiz on each of the painters and their life history. After they’re all finished with the watercolor paintings at the end of the day, they hang up each of the paintings right outside their classroom in the 600’s hallway along with two of the other Spanish teachers for everyone to see.  After each class they remove the previous paintings and add the new ones in.