Participate in storytelling time with Matante Claudette who will read, “Frida, c’est moi” on the Zoom platform, next Thursday, April 30 at 10:30 am. Matante Claudette will introduce you to Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter who lived from 1907 to 1954. The story “Frida, c’est moi”, written by Sophie Faucher and illustrated by Cara Carmina was published by Édito Jeunesse.

You can also do the activity with any story you have at home. You will simply need to adapt the questions from step 3 on. What is particularly interesting about this story is the discovery of a historical figure.

For copyright reasons, there is no recording of the story reading, so don’t miss the live event!

Step 1: The Reading Corner

Choose a comfortable place in your home where you would like to hear a story.
It can be sitting on the couch, in mom and dad’s room, or even in a cabin made of blankets and cushions.
Once you have chosen the location, make yourself comfortable, and let the story begin!

Build your blanket fort

Step 2: Reading the Story

Sit back, relax, and listen to this wonderful story.
Here is the summary: If the works of Frida Kahlo are well known to the general public, including her magnificent self-portraits revealing her dark beauty and her flowery hair, her life story is not so well known. However, her extraordinary life was marked by intense physical suffering which she transcended through the love of her art. In this children’s book, Sophie Faucher lends her voice to Frida the child who tells her story through the joys and sorrows of her daily life. The thought-provoking writing, filled with disarming naivety and tenderness are echoed by the rich and colourful illustrations by Cara Carmina. This is a story that encourages us to think about self-acceptance and respect for differences all the while arousing our emotions and a great curiosity to know more about this exceptional woman and artist.

Step 3: What did you learn?

After listening to the story, here are some questions to ask yourself to see if you listened well.

• How many sisters does Frida have?
• What animal would Frida like to be?
• Name fruits and vegetables that are green.
• What is the flavour of the super sorbet that Frida prepares?
• What happened to Frida when she was broken into a thousand pieces?

Diary

On today’s logbook page, kids can document today’s activity. For example, by drawing Frida or another historical character in the story or writing the emotions experienced when reading the story. The possibilities are endless!

We invite parents to ask their kids questions about today’s activity to feed and improve on their journal entry as well as to engage them in a nice conversation. Here are some questions you can ask:

• What did you learn during the story?
• What animal would you like to be?
• What did you prefer during this activity?

Did you know...

• Although Frida Kahlo is a painter who produced relatively fewer works of art (143 works are listed in her catalogue), she remains one of the best known visual artists in the world.
• About a year after her accident, she had to wear plaster corsets in bed. That is when she started painting. To help her see herself better, her relatives placed a mirror on the ceiling of her canopy bed. She then used her reflection as a model, which inspired her long series of self-portraits. In fact, out of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits.
• Frida’s pet was a spider-monkey named Fulang-Chang.

To take this activity further, tomorrow Friday, May 1st, Matante Claudette invites you to join her in a second live session to talk more about this story.

Like Frida, it’s your turn to create your self-portrait! To participate in the next activity, all the information is found HERE  

Activity by Matante Claudette.