Vincent van Gogh in the Classroom: Integrate Art and Integrate Fun

I cannot stress enough the importance of art in the classroom. Art gives students a great opportunity to be creative and it gives you a wonderful opportunity to integrate fun, writing, and history. First, I passed out this great outline of van Gogh's Starry Night that I found online through a Pinterest pin as a free printable from Practical Pages.

I passed out the handout with no background information. "Make this creative," I said. That was it. "This looks familiar," I heard. I was so excited to see the results. Look at this. {Um, maybe it had a little bit of a Clint Eastwood flair--that town is painted red.} I do love the colors in the sky--planets maybe?

Now, on to step 2. We studied Vincent van Gogh, and we looked at his worked. We looked at Starry Night. Then I had a new set of directions. "Recreate," I said. 

Now, you see a more van Gogh-like Starry Night, but I still love the 2nd  grade colors above. We just used crayons and then went over the pictures with a water color wash. Just get water and add a bit of water color paint (the cheap kind works) and brush quickly over the crayons.

Now, I'm big on integration. We've had a history lesson, an art lesson, even learned a new art technique. It's time for more integration fun. We added a bit of writing. It's a perfect fit to get students to work with descriptive writing. Get your kiddos to draw and recreate their own Starry Night on the top of the page. Then they write a description of the word below it. It's a great way to add directional words too. 

Enjoy!
Robin @ Sweet Tea Classroom

Skunks in the Classroom {Skunk Writing Prompts and Craftivity}

With their long swishy tails with a white stripe down their back, it's hard not to recognize the skunk. It's impossible to miss their smell too! But, you have to admit that they are downright cute. They're fun to write about too. Here are some skunk writing prompts that aren't stinky.

Skunk Writing Prompts
S is for Skunk (students list words that start with S)
If I were a skunk . . .
If a skunk didn't have a stripe . . .
If a skunk walked into our classroom . . .
If a skunk met a porcupine . . .
What rhymes with skunk?
If I had a stripe down my back . . .
If you had a pet skunk . . .
If I were nocturnal like a skunk . . .

Skunk Page Topper and Craftivity
I like to throw in a craftivity with my writing prompts. See how cute this skunk writing prompt craftivty is. My teacher created skunk crafitivty is available {HERE}.

Here are a few skunk teaching resources to use. Of course, you can use the sk or unk sounds for phonics. Here's more:

Skunk Teaching Resources and Skunk Resources (that aren't stinky)
Skunk Basics
Enchanted Learning Skunks
Cleveland Museum Skunk Data

Thanks and please follow Sweet Tea Classroom for more Sweet Tea teaching tips.
Robin