4th Grade Sunflowers in the style of Van Gogh

I attempted to teach a really awesome lesson on Vincent Van Gogh's sunflowers. I even showed a clip of Doctor Who's "Vincent and the Doctor" (which is pretty awesome, by the way). My students seemed really into it!!

...but...well, this lesson kind of flopped. I think my students got too bored with it. I was REALLY discouraged, but then a few students really pulled through! I mean, these sunflowers are gorgeous!!

I had asked the students to color in their pictures using dots only. I realized a little too late that the papers were a little big for that. It would have been easier (maybe) to use paint, but I only have this class for 25 minutes!! At my other school, I tried using paint and oil pastels, but the classes that used crayons honestly turned out much better than the other ones. Trial and error. I really like this first one (^) and how the white spaces make it look even more like Van Gogh's style!

Another one that turned out well! This student colored in, then added dots on top. A great approach really.

Many of my students decided to stop doing dots after the petals were done. I ended up having to grade these differently than I had originally planned. This lesson definitely needs some adjustment. Feel free to post any suggestions for future reference!

Kindergarten: Organic/Free-form Shape

This is a fun lesson!! I do this lesson after the ovals and before the shape family. To prep for this lesson, I drew four random, squiggly shapes on a piece of paper. I cut each shape out (students receive one shape each).

Before starting the lesson, I discussed what a free-form/organic shape is. I talk about all the things that are free-form shapes (people, flowers, dogs, leaves, etc.) I then held up one of my free-form shapes and asked students what it looked like. I rotated it to see if their views changed. I did this for each of my four shapes. Students loved coming up with ideas, and it really helped stress that organic shapes can be anything!

I then handed each student a shape and had them turn it into something with their crayons. Like my previous lessons in the shape series, students cut, glued, and colored on a piece of construction paper to make a completed picture.

Here is one outstanding piece from one of my kinders! My school has empty black frames in the hallway for me to insert artworks into. This is a picture of a wolf howling in the woods! If you look closely, you can see the black lines around the wolf. That is one of the random shapes I drew on paper.

The results can be surprising! I love that this lesson gives students so much creative room!