Cherry Blossom Prints

3rd graders made cherry blossom collage/prints inspired by Van Gogh's Cherry Blossom painting.  We discussed his composition- how he doesn't show the whole tree- just a section of branches and flowers.  Students started by drawing and cutting out a branch to glue on a light blue background- this surprisingly took an entire class for most students.  The next week we discussed printmaking and cut a flower shape out of sticky backed foam (thank you yet again Rhode Island Recycling Center) which we stuck onto a piece of cardboard to create our printing plate.  We also used this time to draw and cut out some birds to include on our brances.  The third week students misxed their own shades of pink and painted their printing plates which they used to stamp their flowers.  I saw a similar lesson on a blog where the flowers were also collaged.  My students really enjoyed the printmaking process!

Van Gogh Sunflowers

Kindergarteners looked at images of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  We discussed what shapes and colors we saw.  We started by cutting out symmetrcial vases- students folded their papers in half and were instructed to draw a number 3 starting at the fold.  They cut them out and decorated them with oil pastel creating different patterns and designs.  The next class we glued brown strips to the bottom of our papers and our vases on top of that- we talked about overlapping our vase on the brown paper instead of having it sit right on top of it.  Students then traced and cut out 3 circles using whatever combination of yellow and orange they chose.  they drew dark circles in the center and cut fringes around the edges to simulate petals.  They were glued at different heights about the vase.  The next week THey painted green stems and leaves connecting the flowers to the vases.  This lesson took about 2 and a half classes- my K classes are only 30 min.  If I had longer I could have finished this in 2 classes.

Starry Night

Students studied Van Gogh's "Starry Night". We discussed his composition, what was in the foreground, middleground and background and his use of small expressive brushstrokes. Students then created their own version of "Starry Night".