Art and Design · Year 1 · Artists Through Time · Spring Term

Exploring Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night

Focusing on Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night' to discuss brushstrokes, colour, and how art can express feelings.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS1: Art and Design - Knowledge of Artists and Designers
• KS1: Art and Design - Painting

About This Topic

Vincent van Gogh's 'The Starry Night', painted in 1889, invites Year 1 pupils to explore expressive art. The canvas shows a swirling night sky over a quiet village, with thick, curving brushstrokes that suggest wind and movement. Pupils notice how blues and yellows blend to evoke calm mixed with energy, learning that artists use colour and marks to share feelings like wonder or turbulence. This topic supports KS1 Art and Design by building knowledge of artists and painting skills.

Pupils develop observation through close looking: they trace swirls with fingers, name colours, and discuss emotional impact. Key questions guide them to explain brushstroke effects, colour choices, and mood predictions with swaps like reds for anger. These activities grow vocabulary such as 'texture' and 'vibrant', while linking art to personal emotions.

Active learning suits this topic perfectly. When children recreate swirls with thick paint or match colours to class-shared feelings, concepts stick through doing. Group sharing of interpretations builds talk skills and shows multiple views of one artwork.

Key Questions

1. Analyze how Van Gogh's swirling brushstrokes create a sense of movement in the sky.
2. Explain how the colours in 'The Starry Night' contribute to its emotional impact.
3. Predict how the painting's mood would change if Van Gogh had used different colours.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the dominant colours Van Gogh used in 'The Starry Night'.
• Describe the swirling patterns of brushstrokes visible in 'The Starry Night'.
• Explain how the colours in 'The Starry Night' might make someone feel.
• Compare the visual effect of thick, swirling brushstrokes to thin, smooth ones.
• Predict how changing the colours in 'The Starry Night' would alter its mood.

Before You Start

Exploring Colour

Why: Students need to be familiar with basic colours and how to name them before discussing how colours are used expressively.

Mark Making

Why: Understanding that different marks (lines, dots, scribbles) can be made with tools is foundational to discussing brushstrokes.

Key Vocabulary

brushstroke	The way paint is applied to a surface with a brush. Van Gogh used thick, visible brushstrokes.
swirl	A pattern that curves around and around, like the shape of a spiral. Van Gogh's sky has many swirls.
vibrant	Bright and strong colours. The blues and yellows in 'The Starry Night' are very vibrant.
mood	The feeling that a piece of art creates. The colours and shapes in a painting can create a happy, sad, or exciting mood.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

Paintings just copy real life exactly.

What to Teach Instead

Van Gogh changes reality with swirls and bold colours to show feelings, not photos. Hands-on recreations let pupils experiment with marks, seeing how choices alter viewer response. Peer shares reveal expressive power.

Common Misconception

Colours in art have no meaning.

What to Teach Instead

Colours suggest emotions, like cool blues for calm nights. Colour-mixing activities help pupils test matches to feelings, correcting random views. Group discussions connect personal links to Van Gogh's choices.

Common Misconception

Brushstrokes are only for neat lines.

What to Teach Instead

Thick swirls create movement and texture. Station practice builds stroke variety, with reflections showing how they add life. This counters tidy-only ideas through sensory trial.

Active Learning Ideas

Close Looking Circle: Starry Night Details

Display a large print. Pupils sit in a circle and pass a soft brush to point at swirls, colours, and shapes while naming what they see. Discuss one key question per turn. End with whole-class mood vote.

20 min·Whole Class

Brushstroke Mimicry: Swirl Stations

Set up stations with thick paint, wide brushes, and black paper. Pupils practise swirling strokes for sky, dotting for stars, straight for village. Rotate stations, then label emotional effect.

30 min·Small Groups

Colour Mood Pairs: Emotion Swaps

Pairs view the painting, list its feelings, then paint a 'what if' version with swapped colours like greens. Compare originals to new moods and share one prediction.

25 min·Pairs

Personal Starry Night: Individual Creation

Pupils choose a feeling, select colours, and paint their night sky with swirls on small canvases. Add a village or cypress. Display for peer comments.

35 min·Individual

Real-World Connections

• Illustrators use different brushstroke techniques to create varied textures and moods in children's books, making characters and scenes feel lively or calm.
• Set designers for theatre productions might use bold colours and swirling patterns inspired by artists like Van Gogh to create dramatic backdrops that convey a specific atmosphere for a play.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

Hold up a print of 'The Starry Night'. Ask students to point to a swirl and describe it using one word. Then, ask them to name one colour they see and say if it makes them feel calm or excited.

Discussion Prompt

Show students a simplified version of 'The Starry Night' with only blue and yellow. Ask: 'What if Van Gogh had used red and orange for the sky? How would that change the feeling of the painting?' Record their ideas.

Exit Ticket

Give each student a small piece of paper. Ask them to draw one swirl like Van Gogh's and write one word to describe the painting's mood.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to introduce Van Gogh's Starry Night to Year 1?

Start with a captivating story of Van Gogh painting from his window, then zoom into details on a big print. Use simple prompts like 'What do the swirls make you feel?' to spark talk. Follow with finger-tracing on the image for kinesthetic engagement, building to painting activities that reinforce observations.

What activities teach brushstrokes in Starry Night?

Stations with thick paint and wide brushes let pupils mimic swirls and dots safely. Guide thick application on dark paper to see texture pop. Rotate groups for variety, then discuss how strokes make sky move, linking directly to Van Gogh's technique.

How does active learning benefit exploring Starry Night?

Pupils grasp abstract ideas like emotional colour through hands-on painting and sharing. Mimicking strokes kinesthetically embeds movement concepts, while peer critiques build descriptive language. Collaborative mood predictions with colour swaps foster critical thinking, making art personal and memorable beyond passive viewing.

How to address different abilities in this topic?

Offer choices: wide brushes for motor challenges, colour cards for selectors. Scaffolds like emotion word banks aid talk. Extend able pupils with mood predictions in writing. All join displays for inclusive sharing, ensuring every child connects to Van Gogh's expression.