We learned that he was troubled and often his paintings reflected his moods. Later in his life, he started painting with bright colors. He makes the viewer feel like they are in the painting. In the painting below, he made the sun look so bright it actually made us feel like we should put on sunglasses!
One of the best paintings he ever did was called The Starry Night. He likely painted this when he was really happy:
The first graders noticed the stars and moon in the sky, as well as the "Grinchy" tree. They also commented on how the sky looked like it was moving. I had found a cool optical illusion for them to try so that they could see the movement in the painting. I hope you'll try it by clicking on the one of the following links:
or click on the video below:
We also played with the Starry Night app:
After reading about Van Gogh's life and investigating The Starry Night, we created our own interpretations of The Starry Night. To see our Van Gogh mini-inquiry, watch the video below:
One of the highlights of our inquiry was seeing The Starry Night in dominoes:
What did you like about our Van Gogh mini-inquiry?
Lily says, "Sadly, he has to clean it all up!"
ReplyDeleteJill says, "It's funny."
Mom says, "The side view is the best."
Dad says, "I wonder how long that really took to build?"
Thanks for your comments! We'll see who the class agrees with most: Lily, Jill, Mom, or Dad.
DeleteMost of Room 408 agreed with Jill's comment about it being funny. I personally agree with Lily, and I wouldn't want to be the one to clean it all up! ;)
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