Van Gogh Starry Night Grid Painting: Grade 5

Starry Night Reproductions= Getting to understand the picture!
 

Oil Pastels and Watercolors did the trick to add color!
 

5th Graders have been busy bumble bees working the past three weeks on reproducing Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night and Night Over Rhone paintings. After they had a chance to get to know the picture they were going to reproduce into a large grid, each student has been able to paint a section of either the Starry Night or Night Over Rhone (depends which class they are in) in a 12 inch by 12 inch square. When we put them all together we will have our own Starry Night reproduction. I cannot wait to finish up the squares this week and post a final picture of the 6 food by 9 foot grid mural! 

In other news....Van Gogh only sold one painting when he was alive. How sad for Van Gogh, but what a good lesson to show that even if other people don't necessarily "like" the picture you are creating, doesn't mean you shouldn't create it! The Starry Night is insured for 100 million dollars and is in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art (how fun would that field trip be!), not too shabby for a gentleman who only sold one painting when he was alive. 

Oh! P.S- We watched this super fun interactive video of the Starry Night on Viemo. It is great to watch especially if you have even been in a museum and had to hold everything back in your power to NOT touch the painting! 

Starry Night Interactive

Egyptian Mummy Designs: Grade 6

An example (to the left) from one of the sixth grade students who created a mummy sarcophagus design on 12x 18 paper.

The goals

1. To create a symmetrical design

2. Students add their name in hieroglyphics 

3. Apply complementary colors

4. Add Egyptian symbols 

5. Add human facial features 

Once we learned about the process of mummification, ( sixth grade students love to learn about how the brains are drained through the nose!) we got to work creating a symmetrical outline for our mini mummy designs. Students were able to fold their paper in half, draw on one side of the design, then trace the outline on the other side. This brought up interesting discussions about why it is so hard to recreate the same line twice!

After we created our miniature mummy, students paired up and started to create a life-sized mummy with a partner. Students start by outlining one person in pencil on the paper and then start to collaborate with student designs from their mini mummy. The goal is to encourage students to collaborate and work together to create a large piece of artwork with both partners ideas combined and displayed. Once students have their outline in pencil finished, they start to paint and backgrounds and then go back over with details they added. We are just in the middle of this project, so in a couple of weeks I will post some of the final products. This project has been amazing to witness the engagement from students with each other and start to work together to create a large piece of artwork!