Dots, Swirls, and Dashes

Now this is a lesson that is more my style! Inspired by van Gogh, my Kindergarten students made a mixed media picture of anything their little hearts desired and learned how to add visual texture.

The idea for this lesson came from "Vincent van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars" from the "Smart About Art" series by Crystal Productions. I'm now the lucky owner of 4 books from the series, purchased with gift certificates I won from contests at The smARTteacher. I found that the books are a little long for Kindergarten, so I used the pictures and paraphrased what was most important. The books would probably be best used for independent reading instead of reading to a group because of the unique style. The Smart About Art books are not your typical story book- each is written as if by a student working on a report about an artist. Very cool books. And now back to the van Gogh book, I really liked how they described his created texture as "dots, swirls, and dashes". The phrase makes it really easy for the students to understand how lines can be used to create texture.

After using the Smart About Art book to teach about van Gogh in the first class period, the students drew a picture of anything they wanted on 9x12 inch paper. I did suggest they choose an object or something made from simple shapes so they would not be frustrated with our time constraints. I checked the drawings as the students finished to make sure they were big enough. If the drawings were a sufficient size, I handed the students a paintbrush so they could begin to add color. 

I tried something a little different with managing supplies for this project. Each table had a tray with several colors of tempera paint in the middle, which is nothing new. The new idea is that I did not put out a tub of water. The biggest issue my students seem to have with tempera is wanting to, or accidentally, watering the paint down. It doesn't matter how many times we talk about "swish, wipe, blot", dirty water still gets dripped into the paint, messing it up for the other students. Instead, I just reminded the students to only get a little at a time, and to wipe their paintbrush on a dry paper towel when the wanted to switch colors. Simple and effective! I was really amazed at how well this worked. The students didn't waste as much paint as usual and the colors on their paintings still look clean. I wouldn't use this all the time since it's important for students to learn to take care of supplies, but it's good when time is in short supply!

In the second class period, we looked at a close up of The Starry Night (you can use Google Art Project or there's a photo on Wikipedia) to see the dots, swirls, and dashes. Then the students used oil pastels to add visual texture. I asked them to start on top of what they painted and then they could fill in the empty spaces.

Kindergarten Sunflower Drawings

Whoops! This one got away from me. This lesson was from waaaay back in January. It seems so long ago now that teachers report back to school in a little over a week! Kansas Day is January 29th so I had planned a Kansas-themed project for each K-3rd grade in January. My plan for Kindergarten was to integrate some more Art History by making Kandinsky-inspired concentric circles to use as the center of drawn sunflowers. The concentric circles turned out too cool to cut, so I changed it into two lessons and. The students learned about Vincent van Gogh and his sunflower series, as well as how a sunflower grows. We even watched a time lapse video of some dwarf sunflowers growing, then because the students had lots of energy that day, each found his/her own spot on the floor and acted out a sunflower's life cycle from seed to wilting.

Source: youtube.com via Katie on Pinterest

My inside-the-classroom bulletin boards were full, and honestly, they're kind of hard for big groups to see, so I made a portable van Gogh display that I could hold while the students sat on the floor around me for our talk. I wrapped a skinny box I had saved in yellow butcher paper then just stapled in some of the van Gogh sunflower prints I had recently been given as well as some labels- his name and dates, the word "sunflowers" and the word "series" with the definition, "several works based on one idea".

The first class period was spent talking about sunflowers and Vincent van Gogh, and getting pencil drawings laid out on black construction paper. Some students finished drawing early and were excited to recognize one of the sunflower prints they had just learned about in a book.

The next class period was spent adding color to the drawings with construction paper crayons. Admittedly, it was a struggle to get the students to cover all the black paper. Most got the point where I decided it was as solid as it was gonna get. Now that I ordered some better tempera paint, I might try having the Kinders paint on black construction paper instead of coloring.

Yes, this is the same photo from above... I wanted a drawing to be the first photo that showed up but I also wanted you to see this drawing next to the other two. I was so impressed by this 6 year-old's drawing!

Vincent Van Scarecrow

This is the scarecrow that I put together for a contest in my hometown.  I am involved with Jackson County Arts and this is the idea I came up with for our entry this year.  The body was already made from last year and while I doubt that Van Gogh was over 6 feet tall like our scarecrow, it worked.  I made a paper mache head starting with a brown paper bag stuffed with newspaper.  I added more newspaper and lots of masking tape to finish the base.   I used liquid starch (that's all I had at school) to make the shell.  I looked at several different self portraits of Van Gogh as a guide.  I figured since it was a scarecrow and kind of a caricature I didn't need to put pressure on myself to make it totally realistic.  I tried to leave brush strokes and not over-blend the paint.  I found three colors of yarn that I combined to  make his hair.  After thinking it was going to take FOREVER to cut the yarn into little pieces, I finally realized that I could wrap all three strands around my hand to form a loop and cut lots of pieces at once.  I added a gauze bandage around his head after I checked to make sure I was covering the correct ear.  It bugs me a tiny bit that the "parts" don't match but I was just pulling the most recognizable parts from different paintings as inspiration.  I even made a quick painting for the occasion- Starry Night over the Pumpkin Patch.  After I stuck his head on my dog decided he was bad news and started growling and barking at the scarecrow.

We set up the scarecrow last night but had to take the accessories down so they wouldn't blow away.  He looked really creepy without the supplies- like he was going to get you!  It was pretty cool to see people stopping to pose by Vincent and I'm happy to say that we won 1st place!  I'm already trying to think of ideas for next year.  I have lots, I just need to figure out which are easy enough for people who are not art history buffs to figure out.