3rd Grade Oil Pastel Sunflowers

Third graders learned about Vincent VanGogh through reading Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt, and talked about his color choices, high and low contrast, and the unique quality of his brushstrokes.  We then discussed symmetry and asymmetry, and looked at examples of each, using some of VanGogh’s paintings as examples.  Students folded and cut black paper to form a symmetrical vase shape and glued it to a black background paper.  Next, they drew the outline of the form as well sunflowers filling the vase using Elmer’s glue to create raised lines.  At the following class, third graders colored their vase, sunflowers, and background with oil pastels, experimenting with how the colors looked on and off the glue areas.  These are their stunning creations!