the Sunflowers with Vincent van Gogh

this is a 1st grade lesson (which has been very trying because apparently 1st grade has the most behavioral problems of any elementary group, who knew?) based on Van Gogh's Sunflower series.

first, i read them Camille and the Sunflowers and ask them why an artist would paint the same thing again and again (usual answers even after we read the story: he likes them. he plants them. he makes them for girls, lol.).
each student gets 2 4"x 4" pieces of card stock. they draw a flower shape on each then cut them out. after that, we cover the whole flower in glue and collage on some petals made from tissue paper.
for this lesson, we look at the Sunflowers and Starry Night to contrast the colors used and what they make us think of. then we talk about warm and cool colors. i use my awesome color board and have 6 students choose if the colors should go on the warm or cool side. they all went completely nuts. they were so excited about getting to go up in front of the room and they were totally bummed when only 6 of them got to do it.
but the point is, they all got warm and cool colors down.

here is a student example so far. when they are done, they will have the vase and background. i had them make 2 so that i could take one from each student to put in one large display together. more pics on that to come!