For our very first kindergarten project this year, students learned about Vincent Van Gogh and Impressionism. We read the book, Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt. Using the story of a boy named Camille, this book described part of the life of Van Gogh and contained images of many of his paintings--especially of his sunflowers. This is what we focused on.
Students began with a small purple piece of paper--about 5 x 9". We folded this in half and I showed them how to make a symmetrical vase by drawing a line parallel to the fold. Depending on the skill level of the student, they had the option of drawing a straight line, slanted line, or wiggly/curvy line. You can see the diversity of vase shapes in the photos!
They then glued this on the bottom half of a white 9 x 12" piece of construction paper.
Next I brought out the tempera paint in brown, green, orange and yellow. I had the children paint 3 brown circles above the vase--not too far apart. They need room for the stamped flowers. I had them next paint a green stem going from the brown circle into the vase. For this age group, you need to be sure to demonstrate this, or you could have stems going over the vase or off the page!
We let these dry. For the flowers, I had prepped flower petal stamps made from styrofoam petals I had cut out in different lengths, glued to cardboard squares in fan shapes. Fruit and veggie trays from the supermarket work wonderfully for this! I showed the students how to brush on the paint to the stamps and then stamp around the brown circles to form flowers. We shared the yellow and orange stamps, swapping with our neighbors. It is OK for the stamps to go off the page and overlap each other.
For the most part, this was a successful project, and the kids learned about Van Gogh's gorgeous sunflowers!
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