Vincent Van Gogh Lesson Plans

Students explore the lives of famous artists and examine ways in which an artist's life affects his or her creations. Each student creates an original work of art in the style of a famous artist.

Fourth graders are introduced to famous works of art and begin to discuss the artist's work. Use art to explain and reflect their own emotions. The write about feelings in a work of art and make connections between art and other disciplines.

Sixth graders develop an understanding of Van Gogh's artwork. In this analyzing lesson, 6th graders do a virtual tour of the Van Gogh art gallery. Students experiment with different paints to recreate his techniques. Students compare their work with their peers.

Second graders create their own versions of Starry Night and practice the use of expressive style. They discuss the lines, colors and shapes used by van Gogh in his work.

Students develop an elementary understanding of the history of art. They study the basic elements of a painting including perspective, composition, color, light and symbolism. They look at each selected painting and analyze it, moving from first impressions to a more detailed examination. to

Students take a field trip to an art gallery reflecting on the paintings they like the most. Individually, they use magazines to find pictures related to their personality. In pairs, they make a mask to represent their ethnic group and discuss the purposes of African masks. To end the instructional activity, they make pinatas out of various materials to celebrate.

Students identify prepositional phrases.  In this prepositional phrase instructional activity, students explore the lyrics of given songs.  In groups, they compose poems containing prepositional phrases.  Students study pictures with poems and determine the relationship between the lyrics and the picture.

Learners use black and white copies of Van Gogh's Cypresses painting. Each student is assigned a medium; colored pencils, crayons, pastels, or texta colors. Students use their tools to color the item as they imagine it should look. They discuss the reasons for their choices, and are shown the full color version as Van Gogh produced it.

Learners examine the artwork of a specific artist and attempt to create a painting in the style of the studied artist in this middle and high school level Art lesson. Rubric is included for self- and teacher assessment after the project is finished.

Learners explore tint, hues, and shades of color. In this art and color activity, students observe and discuss Van Gogh's artistic style. Learners mix paints to create a single hue background and add details to paint a nightscape of their community.