Second Grade Starry Night

This two week project teaches children about a famous artwork, as well as line, depth, and monochromatic colors.

Week 1
Show children Starry Night by Van Gogh. Children describe, analyze, and judge the painting. Key points to focus on are the lines that make up the light from the stars, as well as the way the houses in the distance look so tiny compared to the tree in the foreground.

Children are given a blue piece of construction paper, a yellow paper for the stars and moon, and oil pastels in different shades of blue as well as white. After quickly sketching the painting on the blue paper, they draw and cut out a moon and stars from the yellow paper and glue it on to their blue paper. Students add lines around the sky using the oil pastels, paying attention to the large wavy cloud in the original work.

Week 2
Students finish drawing the mountains, city, and church. They use a black paper to cut and paste the large wavy tree in the foreground. All done!

Second grade results: