Ask your students to describe the painting and its main ideas.
Focus on the wind. Ask your students how Van Gogh used brush strokes to make the wind (swirls etc.) Point out that the swirls are made with small brush strokes and many different shades of blue.
Then move to a demonstration of how to paint like Van Gogh.
On the top 2/3 of the paper paint dark blue swirls and then fill in the rest of the sky with white. Emphasize allowing the paint to mix on the paper, Van Gogh did that.
End the sky by adding small brush strokes over the larger swirls. This gives the impression of many small strokes.
To close your lesson, ask the students to identify the same skills (small strokes, swirls, mixing colors) in one of the other prints.
On the second day of this lesson focus on the background on Starry Night. Have the children tell you what they see and then demonstrate how to paint like Van Gogh. I like to focus on the mountains and the town.
On the third day, I like to change my focus to the Irises. We finish this painting by describing how the irises are made and painting irises in the foreground of our paintings. The results are beautiful. This lesson is highly successful in elementary grades.
"Because Maryland has performance task testing, I like to extend this lesson to include an analysis and writing piece. I start by asking my students to fill out a form asking "How did I use Van Gogh's skills to create my painting?" The chart lists three rows:
Van Gogh's skill
How I used the skill
Where I used the skill.
By completing the chart the children have created a prewriting guide to answer the question. (I like to call it the question of the day) Then I have my students write a paragraph or more about how they painted like Van Gogh. Parents love to see their children's writing displayed in the hallway with the finished painting.
Good Luck!"
KinderArt® Lesson/Activity 
