Spanish lessons you can open and teach, built around one artwork.
Spanish through art for teachers and tutors, middle school through AP. Start with a free lesson, or go straight to the system, the ready-made unit, or the reference that fits your week.
Sunday night. Six tabs open. Monday still isn’t built.
You planned it. You ran it. Then third period went quiet, and half the room was on their phones.
So you spent the weekend building the next one. And the next one.
That’s a curriculum team’s job, and you’re doing it alone.
Your students know the vocabulary and the rules. They need something real to look at and talk about.
Give students something to look at.
A painting gives students something real to describe, so the words come easily. Nobody runs out of things to say about something they’ve really seen.
Every session in these programs runs the same five steps. You prepare once and use it again and again.
It works for mixed-level classes, and it works even if Spanish isn’t your first language!
The Five-Step Flow, every session
Pick your starting point
Most teachers start with the free lesson. If you already know what you want, go straight to it.
Free Lesson Scripts
A free Spanish lesson for Monday, built around one painting.
For you if you want to see how it works with your own students before you spend anything.
A complete lesson, scripted in Spanish and English, with a student activity sheet. Choose Las dos Fridas, El gato, or Las Meninas, open it, and teach.
It covers the first two steps of the Five-Step Flow, Introduce and Observe, so you can feel the method in your own room.
Historia de Arte
Turn any artwork into a Spanish lesson, every time you teach.
For you if you want to choose your own artists and artworks, and use one system all year.
You pick the artwork. The system supplies the structure: a 4-part walkthrough of 16 text lessons, a Discussion Guide with bilingual scripts, Interactive Slides you adapt in minutes, a Vocabulary Menu, a Teacher Toolkit, a Student Notebook, and a Fillable Lesson Plan.
Prompts and sentence starters come at four levels (Veo, Entiendo, Expreso, Domino), so a mixed-level class can join the same conversation. You also get a free bonus, Storytelling Through Art.
Hispanic Heritage Art Portfolio
Seven artists. Eight artworks. Every session already built.
For you if you want a unit that is ready to teach, with nothing left to build.
Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Dalí, Rivera, Kahlo, and Botero. You get a Reading Book and a Writing Book (each in a bilingual and a Spanish-only edition), 160 Interactive Slides, a short text lesson for every resource, and a free Book Menu.
Students finish with their own written Mi historia del mundo hispano.
Design Guide
Speak the language of art.
For you if your students can say what’s in a picture but not how it’s made.
A bilingual reference for the seven elements and eight principles of art: the Design Book, the Libro de diseño (Spanish only), and 39 Design Interactive Slides. Each of the 15 concepts has a prompt slide with a sentence frame and word bank, and a bilingual definition slide.
Open it any time during a lesson, with Historia de Arte or on its own.
Not sure where to start?
Find your situation.
Start small. Build from there.
You don’t need all of it. Pick the step that fits your class this week.
Look first. Then talk.
Students draw, discuss, and write while one artwork stays on the screen, and you may notice them still talking in Spanish after the bell.
Used in classrooms on
Built in California, for Spanish teachers.
Historia de Arte began with picture study: look at one painting, quietly, until you can tell someone what’s in it. We noticed the words come easily when there’s something real in front of you to describe, so we built a five-step flow around it.
Then we built what a teacher actually opens: slides you fill with your own artwork, prompts for each step, sentence starters at four levels, a vocabulary menu, and fillable Google Docs.
We believe a language lives inside the people who speak it.
Rachel Havana builds it. She has a degree in Spanish, more than 20 years of bilingual experience, and designs curriculum.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be fluent in Spanish?
No. The Historia de Arte Discussion Guide scripts the discussion in Spanish and English, and the bonus, Storytelling Through Art, helps you feel confident describing art in Spanish. The Portfolio’s Reading and Writing Books come in a bilingual and a Spanish-only edition. The free lesson has the scripts written out.
What levels does it work for?
Middle school through AP. Historia de Arte gives you prompts and sentence starters at four levels. The Portfolio’s open prompts let a beginner write one sentence and an advanced student write a paragraph.
Can I use these in itslearning or Schoology?
Yes. Teachers have used these materials in both. The files are Google Docs and Google Slides that you copy and make your own, so you can post them wherever your students log in.
Do I need Historia de Arte to use the Portfolio or the Design Guide?
No. Each one is sold on its own. If you own Historia de Arte, the four levels in its Discussion Guide work with the Portfolio, and the Design Guide is built to use during its lessons.
Which license do I need?
Your purchase covers you. Teaching a group with Historia de Arte or the Portfolio? Add a one-time teacher license at checkout: $99 for up to 30 students, or $249 for more than 30. Each teacher needs their own license. The Design Guide is licensed for one individual or one teacher.
How do I get them, and is there a refund?
Instantly after checkout. A walkthrough of short text lessons shows you what to open and when, with make-a-copy links for the Google Docs and Google Slides. There is no video. All sales are final, because these are digital products. Questions first? Email [email protected].
Try one lesson this week.
Open the free lesson and teach it with your class. Know what you want already? Go straight to Historia de Arte.