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Vincent van Gogh Projects for Kids

Vincent van Gogh Projects

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This blog post is full of Vincent van Gogh art projects that my students and I have made over the years. In this post, I have included 6 art projects, inspired by Vincent van Gogh. With these projects, you will have the options for your students to learn art history, work collaboratively, or work on projects that they can each take home. I hope you find something that fits your needs.

So, have you had the Vincent van Gogh “experience” yet? I will admit that although I’ve seen the pictures and heard from several people that it’s a cool exhibit, I have not seen it (yet). I know, I know, you think I’m kidding. However, I have to say; I feel like I’ve had my own Vincent van Gogh experiences for years…my students and I, that is! 😉 This blog post is full of Vincent van Gogh art projects that my students and I have made over the years—van Gogh “experiences” we’ve been having for a long time.

In this post, I have included a lot of projects. I hope you find something that fits your needs, so even if you can’t load your students up on a bus for a field trip to the van Gogh experience, then at least you can have one of your own at your school.

1. Collaborative Flower Vase

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Teachers are the first to make gifts for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and every holiday in between. One year, in 2014, I decided my students and I would make gifts for the teachers.

We made collaborative Van Gogh sunflower vases where each student contributed their own flower that I then assembled onto a vase. Each class then gave a final poster to their classroom teacher. This was a big hit and was pretty easy to do.

Materials Needed: 

      • Large paper for the final poster.
      • Small individual paper (white/colored or both)
      • Pencils/erasers/scissors
      • Medium: You can use any medium you want; crayons, colored pencils, pastels, markers, and/or paint. I actually decided to use a variety of mediums because the final vase of flowers had a lot of interest with so many different flowers included.
      • This entire art lesson is also put together in a PDF on Teachers Pay Teachers (for free). You can download it HERE if you’d like this lesson in that format.

Step #1: Have each student draw and color a sunflower to get started. To help guide them on this step, you can provide pictures of sunflowers for your students to look at, or you can let them imagine whatever kind of sunflower (or flower) they want. Encourage your students to draw big.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Depending on how large the final vase is, you’ll want to provide your students with a sheet of paper that will be the right size for the final flower “arrangement.” It’s important to encourage your students to draw their flowers as large as possible. Children tend to draw small so keep encouraging them to make big flowers!

Step #2: Once your students are finished drawing and coloring their sunflower(s), then have them cut them out.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Step #3: As students finish their flowers, you can have a few of them start working on the larger piece of paper with the vase. After you draw a light sketch of a vase, have your students color the vase and the background. I took some of the flowers the kids made and estimated how large I wanted the final vase.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Step #4: Once the vase is colored and all the individual flowers are drawn, colored, and cut out, you can assemble the flowers onto the final poster to look like a vase full of sunflowers. Arrange them how you want them first, then glue them down. There are so many great ways you can use this project. So, even if you aren’t creating this project as a gift for someone, it will look amazing on your bulletin board. Your students will be proud of the work they did—collectively!

Download FREE PDF Flower Vase Lesson HERE

2. The Starry Night Collaboration Poster

Vincent van Gogh Projects

What is better than The Starry Night from Vincent van Gogh? How about a huge poster of The Starry Night that all your students get to help recreate? Since the real thing can’t be touched, having students work together to create their own version will remind them that this painting is larger than life!

My collaborative posters are easy for teachers and fun for kids. There are two options to choose what works best for you and your students – making it great for any age. Both options are straightforward.

For poster option #1, the colors have been assigned. Students will follow the colors assigned using a color key on each page. For poster option #2, the colors have NOT been assigned. For this version, your students can color the poster however they want (or however you want them to color/paint it).

How does it work?

To start this Vincent van Gogh art project, each student is given one page of the famous masterpiece to color according to the instructions.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Then, once all sheets are colored, they will get cut out.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Finally, these individual pieces are assembled to reveal a large collaboration mosaic/poster/mural of The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh recreated by your students!

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Poster Details:

      • There are 30 pieces.
      • Each piece fits on a regular 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper.
      • The final poster is approx. 27″ x 33″ depending on your printer settings.
      • You will need crayons, markers, or colored pencils in blue, light blue, green, light green, yellow, orange, purple, and brown.

The Starry Night Collaboration Poster HERE

3. Swirling Landscape Lesson

Vincent van Gogh Projects

This is another one of those Vincent van Gogh art projects that I did years ago. I have this lesson available for free on Teachers Pay Teachers with a link further down in this section. You can use my PowerPoint to break down the three parts of a landscape; foreground, middle ground, and background.

Using The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, students will learn about the parts of a landscape and create their own version of The Starry Night. This free lesson is a PowerPoint file, so you can easily adapt it and edit it to fit your specific needs. Hopefully, I’ve done most of the work for you, so you can easily use this slideshow in your classrooms.

How it works! Steps to make your own swirling landscape artwork.

You will want to give your students three colors of paper. Use a monochromatic color scheme (dark, medium, and light blue, for example) or provide blue, purple, and black paper as I did. Have your students draw trees and hills in the middle ground with crayons or pastels to get started. Then have your students cut out the outline of the hills/mountains and/or trees of their middle-ground image.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Students can then glue their middle-ground image onto the full-size paper (which will represent the background). Then have students add a “starry night” to the sky of their landscape. Your students can use crayons or pastels.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

For the foreground, have your students draw trees and buildings on black paper with a white colored pencil. You can have your students draw a cypress tree like in Van Goghs’s landscape, or you can adapt this to fit the landscape where you live. For example, my students and I created saguaro cacti in our foreground because we live in the desert, and the saguaro is a special cactus to us.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Finally, glue your black foreground to the bottom of your paper with the middle ground and background.

FREE Landscape Lesson HERE

4. “Gogh for it” Collaboration Poster

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Have a “Gogh for it!” kind of school year! Be it at the start of a year or any time during, this Van Gogh-inspired collaboration poster is great to use in your classroom to motivate your students to “Gogh for it!”

Like my other posters, this poster is similar. Students will color the individual pieces of the poster.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Then, students will cut out their individual pieces, which will then be assembled to create the final poster.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

I have also included alternate pages so you can use this poster without the title in case you want to do a Van Gogh sunflower activity and don’t want the title.

Van Gogh Inspired “Gogh For It!” Collaboration poster HERE.

5. Meet the Master Artist

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Teaching art history will be easy in your classroom with this time-saving resource. I designed this lesson to make art integration easy for classroom teachers and fun for kids! Children love making art. They also love to learn art history, especially when presented with a fun, new, and exciting activity like this.

Teach art history with this time-saving resource!

Children are often fascinated to learn about the master artists who created the many famous artworks they love and recognize. Usually, it can be overwhelming for a teacher who has so many things on their plate to figure out fun and engaging art history lessons. That’s where I (Jenny K.) come in.

I specialize in helping classroom teachers, parents, and art teachers bring as much creativity to their teaching as possible.

For this lesson, students will learn about Vincent van Gogh (page 1 biography), and then they will create their own version of Starry Night (page 2). The two pages will be attached and displayed together!

Vincent van Gogh Projects

INCLUDED: 

      • Biography Video: I like to do as much as I can to save teachers time. I have included a short biography video about Vincent van Gogh in this resource. Once you purchase this resource, you will have access to two formats: streaming from YouTube and downloadable from Dropbox (if your school blocks YouTube). This video presents the information that is on the biography page. You can show this to your students and have them follow along and read the biography sheet. Or they can sit and listen to the material presented in this video.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

      • Art Example: Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night 
      • Vincent van Gogh Biography 1-page mini-poster (8.5″ x 11″)
      • Written Instructions for the students
      • Written Instructions for the teacher

MATERIALS NEEDED:

      • Paper: You can use standard copy paper for this project. If you have access to thicker copy paper, such as 32lb or card stock, you can also use that. Be sure that the paper you use supports the medium of your choice. For example, if you use markers, you want thicker paper that won’t curl up when it gets damp. Also, keep in mind that it might be more challenging for younger children to cut around the outline of the artist’s portrait if you use thick card stock.
      • Scissors: Your students will need to cut out pages 1 and 2, so please be sure they have scissors to do so.
      • Medium: You can use a variety of mediums for this project. The important part is that your students know how to use the materials and that the paper thickness matches what you are using. You can use crayons, colored pencils, markers, or various paints. Your students will need a basic pencil to sketch their artwork, and I like to give students a black marker to outline (but this isn’t necessary). You can use crayons and colored pencils on thinner copy paper. Markers and paint will work better on thick copy paper (I like to use 32lb laser printer paper) or white card stock if you can run this through your copy machine. If you use paint (watercolor, acrylic, or tempera), also use thick paper that won’t tear when it gets wet from the liquid of the paint.

2-page Activity—3 Levels

You will find that I have provided three levels for this project; a beginnerintermediate, and advanced set of project pages.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

recommend that you use the intermediate set as the base of this lesson, fill in with the beginner pages for children who need more support, and use advanced pages for students who need more challenge.

I have provided many options so you can easily customize this lesson. However, if you use this with very young children, you might want to use only the beginner pages, while older students could easily do the advanced pages. You know your students best, so please use the level that fits your students’ needs.

Students love this lesson, and so do teachers…

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Meet the Master Artist: Vincent van Gogh HERE

6. Vincent van Gogh Projects for Kids: Vincent van Gogh Portrait Collaboration Poster

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Much like my poster of The Starry Night (up above), this poster is also collaborative. However, this poster makes a portrait of Van Gogh himself when complete. Vincent painted over 35 self-portraits during his life. It seems appropriate that when looking for Vincent van Gogh art projects, a portrait of the master himself is included in the list of lessons.

This project works the same as my other collaborative posters. Students are each given a piece of the final poster to color. Then students cut out their pieces, and finally, the parts are assembled to reveal the final portrait of Van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh Projects

Vincent van Gogh Portrait Collaboration Poster HERE

Thanks for reading,

Jenny K.

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