Van Gogh Swirling Skies

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 5th grade students love looking at Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night and creating their own personalized version.

Students learn about emphasis, movement, silhouette, and warm/cool colors in this fun art project!


*** This full lesson with the instructional materials is available on Teachers Pay Teachers, Classful, and Made By Teachers ***

Discussing Artwork and Envisioning our own Landscapes

Before the lesson begins, we use this PowerPoint to look at Vincent van Gogh’s artwork, with a special focus on The Starry Night.  I have yet to meet a student who had never seen The Starry Night before. Learning about an artwork that is already familiar to students helps them to feel more connected to the art world.

We discuss what makes The Starry Night so well-loved, why it has become so famous, and which elements and principles of art van Gogh utilizes in the work (namely, emphasis and movement in the sky)

After brainstorming some creative possibilities, students draw their own unique landscape idea on their drawing paper, making it dark and low on the page, so that emphasis remains on the sky.

Creating Movement

Once we’re ready to draw our skies, we point out how the movement in The Starry Night’s sky is based off two main swirls.  Students can draw 2-3 basic swirls in the skies of their drawings, and then draw additional lines building off those initial swirls to create an entire sky full of swirling stripes.

Warm-toned or Cool-toned Skies

Once students finish filling their skies with swirling stripes, we review which colors are considered “warm-toned” (reds, oranges, yellows) and which colors are considered “cool-toned” (blues, greens, and purples).  Students consider what type of color scheme they think would work well with their unique landscape. Students color inside all the stripes, using the different colors in their color scheme. Their skies end up swirling with movement, just like Vincent van Gogh’s!

I have created an easy-to-follow student handout for this project, so students can complete the project independently.  This is very handy if there is a sub, if a student misses a class, or if I just need the kids to work more independently so I can get things ready for our art show!

The PowerPoint all about Vincent van Gogh and his artwork, this full lesson in more detail, and the student handout are all available in my TpT store, All About Art.  Just make copies of the student handout, and you’re ready to start this fun lesson with your students right away!






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