When I found out the Van Gogh Experience was here in DC, I had to jump on that and get tickets! Before we went I made sure to do a Vincent Van Gogh unit study with my son so he was familiar with Van Gogh’s life, painting style, and paintings prior to visiting. I’m so glad I did because it made the Experience SO much more meaningful for him! Here is the breakdown of what we did for our unit study:
We began the unit by reading the book, Camille and the Sunflowers, by Laurence Anholt. I also included some other books on Van Gogh that I got from our local library to include on our theme shelf, in case my son wanted to look through them throughout the week.
We then watched this video made by the Van Gogh Museum to give more information about Van Gogh’s life.
I bought this pack of prints of many of his paintings and created a mini “gallery” in our home using some sentence strips and tape so my son could walk around and observe them as he would in a real gallery. You can also do a virtual tour of the Van Gogh Museum! But I thought it was fun to see these up close and personal. We actually went to Amsterdam back when we lived in Germany and passed by the museum but never visited because my youngest was a toddler at the time, and, well, you know how it is. But I did take a picture of the outside, which I showed my son. Ha!
We spent a lot of time on Unravel Van Gogh, an AMAZING website which allows you to learn many fascinating facts about his paintings in an interactive way. I highly recommend this site to anyone wanting to learn more about his work. Such a well-done site!
My son then used this The Starry Night painting tutorial by Mako to guide him in creating his own version, which I just adore and will treasure forever. During our study we learned about how Van Gogh used the Impasto painting technique to create thick layers of paint, which my son used in his own!
We culminated the Vincent Van Gogh unit study by visiting the Van Gogh Experience here in Washington DC, and it was SO worth it! It begins with giving details of Van Gogh’s life in a visual way and providing some interactive ways to explore some of his paintings up close. After that you enter a huge ballroom which is an immersive experience that uses movement, music, and lighting to bring his work to life. My son thought this part was really neat, and we all enjoyed how it used and sparked various senses. (You can see video of our experience in my reel about it on Instagram!)After about a half hour you enter the final section, which allows you to color your own picture and display it on the virtual wall for all to see. There is also a virtual reality portion, but we did not do that part. I highly recommend doing this experience with your kids if you have one around you!
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