It's Gogh Time

Third Grade Animal Contour + Pattern Designs  *

Van Gogh's Sunflowers 3ft x 4ft Oil Pastel Grid Drawing * This year our school has chosen Vincent Van Gogh as our focus artist. This means I get to create a lesson for each grade with Van Gogh in mind. These works need to be art show quality as well! For my fifth graders I struggled to pick a lesson. This is a very talented artistic group which struggle behaviorally. In the end I went with a grid drawing recreation of Van Gogh's Sunflowers and HOLLLLY COW did they knock it out of the park!  For the weeks prior to this lesson my 5th graders had been learning about line, specifically contour lines. They had also done a few small grid drawing studies with the idea of line incorporated into it so they had a fairly strong knowledge of using line and grid drawing to create a work. Day 1 we spent entirely on an artwork critic of Van Gogh's Sunflower work. We learned more about his life and how it can play a roll in how we interpret art. We also talked about Van G

One Day Lego Self Portrait Lesson * I needed a quick one day project before winter break and this was an awesome lesson to fill in with. I got this lesson from another art blog Art.Eat.Tie Dye.Repeat (highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already) and tweaked it to fit for my first graders.  First we put on our thinking caps and cranked them back to last year when they drew self-portraits. We had a nice discussion about what a self-portrait is and isn't.  Second they told me the shapes we can see in a lego. The legs are rectangles, the head is a circle, or is it a square? Why not somewhere in the middle? A square with round edges! Then we talked about making something personalized. How can we tell its a self-portrait and not just a portrait  Third students created their self-portraits adding color using their drawing materials.  This is one of my particularly gifted artists. She did an amazing job with her portrait even getting the details down t

Learning About Line From The Starry Night * This year my school has chosen Vincent Van Gogh as our artist of focus. This means I've been working to create Van Gogh lesson for every grade AND they have to be art show ready! For my kindergarteners I decided to focus on Van Gogh's, The Starry Night but with a Yangon, Myanmar twist!  First students studied lines ; long lines, dashed lines, curvy lines, curly lines, spiral lines... you get the idea. We had a number of lessons building up to this project where we also studied Van Gogh, and in depth,  The Starry Night .  Students took their knowledge of line and The Starry Night  and over the course of four, 30 min classes created this work!  Day 1 they used tempera paint white + blue to create different shades of blue for the background .  Day 2 students used oil pastels to add circular stars (and moon) and dashed lines around the stars. Day 3 we filled in the rest of the sky with curved and wavy dashed li

Well here I am, in my 4th year as an art educator and I've finally decided to commit some time into giving art ed blogging a Gogh! This will be a space for me to share my successes (and failures) with other like minded art education professionals.  While the number of years I've put in as an educator my not yet be impressive, my unique teaching experiences have allowed me a teaching career unlike many others. To learn more about that check out my About Me page.  This blog is intended to be a space for myself and others to share, communicate, and grow within the amazing field that is art education. Hopefully those who visit this site it will find inspiration and positive vibes! Thank you for taking time to grow with me. Now, IT'S GOGH TIME!