We started the lesson firstly by projected quite a few of Van Gogh’s painting on the big screen, the Pupil’s had to choose the one they liked best to reproduce in Art class. They all voted for “The starry night” I asked them why? They said that they loved the stars, the beautiful colors, and the big dark tree that caught their eye with its imposing shape. I showed them how to draw the skeleton of the picture, by sketching very lightly with their pencils so thy could all get the right proportion. The next step was to show them how to shade, mix colors using wax crayons and lastly adding some parts with pastels. As you can see, they all manage to produce some beautiful artwork.
Our learning continued in English language class too, as they wanted to find out more about this famous Artist. In groups they worked together and discussed among themselves what they already knew about the Artist. Once they had finished this activity, each group came out and wrote their discoveries on the white board. Once they had written down everything, they knew about him, taking it in turns, each group gave an oral presentation where we compared and contrasted information.
In our next Art class, we then watched a short video on van Gogh for children. After watching the video, we then had a round of questions to see what new information they had acquired on Van Gogh.
Finally, each student wrote a simple summary sharing their ideas through an oral presentation. In their next Art class, they will all tell their story of who Van Gogh was, using their summaries and upmost of all drawing, coloring, and painting, just what they love to do best!
By: Lynn Brennan Primary teacher
