4th grade van gogh's

For the 4th grade artist unit, we had to study Van Gogh's Starry Night.  This is one of my favorite paintings.  I love the colors and swirls and the violence of the sky with the calmness of the village.  The kids found everything that I wanted them to see when we VTSed the painting.  (Visual thinking stratagies). 

But... I didn't want to just repaint starry night.  I wanted them to take his inspiration and make our own pictures.  So we talked about places that you could go or draw.  Then we drew a large object on the left side of the picture just like van gogh's tree, and we drew some hills with a quiet scene on the right side, like his village and hills.

Most of the kids picked a tropical destination, but a few picked the mountains or a park or one of my favorites which is the icebergs in sunset.