Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
Unit
Overview Information
Enduring
Understandings
(From ODE Standards)
Anticipatory Set
(What do students already
know? Or what would they
need to know to succeed in
this unit?)
Rationale
(Why is this concept/central
focus relevant for students
to learn?)
Length of class period: 45 min
Approximate number of students in each class: 25
Beginning date of UNIT: January 24th
Ending date of this UNIT: February 11th
Critical and Creative Thinking: Students combine and apply
artistic and reasoning skills to imagine, create, realize and refine
artworks in conventional and innovative ways.
Literacy: As consumers, critics and creators, students evaluate
and understand artworks and other texts produced in the media
forms of the day.
The second-grade students just finished a unit on Monet and
landscapes. Now, we’ll use what they learned about Monet and
Impressionism to transition into learning about Van Gogh, Post-
Impressionism, and his still life paintings. One of the activities we
will do will be comparing and contrasting a piece by Monet and a
piece by Van Gogh so the students can start to differentiate
between the two artists and their different styles.
The students will be learning about Van Gogh, his style, and will then
apply what they learned to create a still life drawing using oil
pastels that resembles the impasto style that Van Gogh was known
for in his work. It is important for students to learn about various
famous artists from history and their styles. Since this unit is coming
after the Monet unit, this will be a good opportunity to look at how
artists find inspiration in each other and how artistic movements
develop and shift. The students will learn how to create similar
visual styles with varying mediums.
The students will also be choosing an object with personal
significance to include in their still life composition. This is
important because it shows students how they can make their art
personal and unique. It is also a good way for them to think about
what is important to them and why/how they might include it in
their own artwork.
They’re also using oil pastels, which they may or may not have used
before, giving them an opportunity to see what effects they can
achieve with different mediums.
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Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
Description of Essential Educational Content
LESSON 1- Who Was Vincent Van Gogh?
Lesson Description: As the intro for this unit, we will be learning about Van Gogh and
(What are students his artwork. We’ll start by watching a video that introduces him
doing? Why are they and his art. Then I will talk a little bit about his life and his artistic
doing it? And how will style. We will then compare Monet’s paintings with Van Gogh’s
you teach it?) paintings, and I’ll ask the students to describe some of the
differences and identify traits of each artist in the works. Then, we
will look more at some more examples of Van Gogh’s works, and
I will ask them to identify something in the piece and describe
what it makes them think or feel.
Approximately how One day
long will this lesson
take?
LESSON 2- Van Gogh’s Flower Still Lifes
Lesson Description: For the artmaking activity for this unit, the students will be
(What are students drawing their own still life in the style of Van Gogh with oil
doing? Why are they pastels. On the first day, we will look at examples of Van Gogh’s
doing it? And how will still lifes and flower paintings. To start the project, the students
you teach it?) will draw the outline of their still life, which will include a vase
sitting on a table with flowers in it. I will have templates that the
students can use for the vases and references photos they can
use for the different types of flowers they might want to include.
The students will also be allowed to choose one additional
object that they would like to include in their still life that
represents something in their life that is important to them or
that they like. On the second day, the students will use the oil
pastels to start filling in their still life outline with color and try to
get the same impasto line effect that Van Gogh used in his
pieces. They will do this by layering different colors with different
types of lines (small thin lines, big thick lines, etc).
Approximately how Two days (If the students do not finish on the second day we will
long will this lesson add one more day to the lesson so the students can finish their
take? pieces.)
Feel free to add lessons if needed.

2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool

Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
Central Focus/Theme/Concept:
Van Gogh / Still Lives
Unit Essential Questions:
Focus 1. What are some features of Van Gogh’s style?
2. What inspired Van Gogh’s art?
3. Why do artists make still life paintings?
Project:
After talking about Van Gogh, his style, and looking at examples of his
work and comparing them to Monet’s, the students will create
their own still life composition using oil paints that reflect Van
Gogh’s style.
Anticipated # of lessons & days for the unit:
Three days total
Lesson 1: One day
Lesson 2: Two days
What is the end goal of After learning about Van Gogh, his life, and his style of art, the
this unit? students will apply what they learned in order to create their own still
(You can paste an image or life with oil pastels that reflects Van Gogh’s style and use of noticeable
describe what your end goal is brush strokes and impasto application of paint.
for this unit development)

Content Statement- Lesson 1:

Perceiving/Knowing
From ODE Standards
Content Statement-
Producing/Performing
From ODE Standards
Content Statement-
Responding/Reflecting
From ODE Standards
1PE Notice and point out details and respond to expressive features
in artworks.
2PE Distinguish the subject matter and artistic style of two or more
visual artists.
Lesson 2:
7PE Generate artmaking ideas from their daily experiences and the
environment.
Lesson 1:
N/A
Lesson 2:
1PR Demonstrate increasing skill and craft in the use of art tools and
materials with attention to their diverse qualities.
3PR Create artworks based on imagination and observation of
familiar objects and scenes.
Lesson 1:
5RE Describe how an artist uses the elements and principles of
design to create expressive impact in a work of art.
6RE Identify and articulate important historical and cultural
contributions of selected visual artists.

2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool

Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
Lesson 2:
1RE Use basic self-assessment strategies to improve their artworks.
3RE Relate the subject matter and ideas in their own artworks to
those in the works of others.
Performance Based Lesson 1
Objectives 1. Students will be able to identify artistic choices as they relate to
specific movements and artists.
2. Students will be able to describe how artists use elements of art to
provoke a specific experience for the viewer
Lesson 2
1. Students will be able to use oil pastels to replicate the impasto style
that Van Gogh is known for in their own still life drawing.
2. Students will be able to choose an object with personal significance
to include in their still life.

Performance Based Lesson 1

Assessments 1. Students can identify the artist or movement that a piece of art
belongs to by evaluating the artistic freatures.
2. Students can describe their reaction/response to specific elements
in a piece of art.
Lesson 2
1. Students can layer colors with oil pastels in different types of lines
to create the impasto look that they observed in the images of Van
Gogh’s work that we looked at in class.
2. Students can choose an object with personal significance to include
in their still life composition and justify why they chose that item and
why it is significant enough to be included in their still life.
Unit Vocabulary Lesson 1:
- Impasto- thick paint application, used to create visible brush
strokes
- Impressionism- An outdoor painting technique that shows the
changing effects of light and color
- Post-Impressionism- artists continued to experiment with
Impressionistic observations of light, color, and form, but
developments such as Pointillism, rough surface application of
paint (impasto – van gogh), and common subject matter were
dramatic departure from traditions
o Artists were inspired by Impressionism, so they took the
things they liked about it, left out the things they
didn’t, and added some new things they were

2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool

Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
Additional Language
Demands
(How have you designed
opportunities to speak
and/or write throughout
your unit so students have
multiple ways to learning
and knowledge?)
Accommodations For
Special Populations
Art/Visual Culture
Examples
(List all artists, artwork,
and/or visual culture
resources used for this
unit)
interested in to create the new style and movement of
art
We will have discussions in class where we compare Impressionist art
(Monet) with Post-Impressionist art (Van Gogh) and I will ask the
students some questions about the artworks and have them share
their thoughts about them. Some of the questions will be:
- Describe the colors used in each painting. What do the
different types of colors make you feel in each painting?
- Look at the types of lined and brush strokes in each painting.
How do the artists use them differently in their paintings? How
does it change the way we feel about the piece?
- These two paintings depict similar scenes/images. Describe
some of the ways that they are different. Do you feel different
things looking at each painting? What about the paintings
make you feel differently?
- Look at the colors that are used in the piece. What do the
colors remind you of? How do the colors make you feel?
- Imagine you are transported into the painting. What do you
think it would be like? What would you hear? What would you
feel? What would you smell? What would you do? Why do you
think that?
o What do you think the weather would be like there? Is
cool? Warm? Is there wind? Is it a calming wind that
relaxes you? Or a strong wind, like from a storm?
There are interpreters that come into the classes to assist with
students that have hearing impairments. Students who need
interpreters sit around each other in class where they are positioned
close to the interpreter, the teacher, and the board.
Van Gogh
- Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat
- Paris, September-October 1887, oil on cotton, 44.5 cm x 37.2
cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh
Foundation)
- Garden of the Asylum
- Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, December 1889, oil on canvas,
72.0 cm x 91.0 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent
van Gogh Foundation, gift from Paul Gachet jr.)
- Cypresses and Two Women
2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool
Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
- Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, February 1890, oil on canvas on
panel, 43.5 cm x 27.2 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
- Landscape at Twilight
- Auvers-sur-Oise, June 1890, oil on canvas, 50.2 cm x 101 cm,
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh
Foundation)
- Orchard in Blossom
- Arles, April 1889, oil on canvas, 73.2 cm x 93.1 cm, Van Gogh
Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
- Wheat fields with Cypresses
- Auvers-sur-Oise, 1889, oil on canvas, 73.2 cm x 93.4 cm, The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (The Annenberg
Foundation Gift)
- Sunflowers
- Arles, January 1889, oil on canvas, 95 cm x 73 cm, Van Gogh
Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
- Irises
- Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, May 1890, oil on canvas, 92.7 cm x
73.9 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh
Foundation)
Monet
- Un Bras de la Seine près de Vétheuil
- 1878, oil on canvas, 46 x 71.5 cm,
- Vétheuil
- 1880, oil on vanvas, 59.7 cm x 80 cm, Kelvingrove Art Gallery
and Museum

Materials & Supplies Seating chart, attendance sheet

Computer, projector, PowerPoint
Vase templates, reference flowers
Pencils, oil pastels, rulers
Construction paper
Van Gogh coloring pages, crayons, colored pencils (for students who
finish early and need something else to work on)

Safety Procedures The students will be instructed on the proper way to use all of the
materials so that they are keeping themselves, their classmates, and
the materials safe at all times.

2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool

Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
Procedures for In the days listed below, feel free to outline which days align with each
Teaching/Learning lesson design. Please feel free to add/remove days/lessons as your unit
design requires.- Give estimates of time regarding your plan and procedures
for each session and the instructional .

For example:

Day 1 3 min:
Students walk into class and sit at their seats.
Take attendance
7 min:
Introduce new unit : Van Gogh & Still Lifes
Watch video:
Camille and the Sunflowers (6 min)
30 min:
[PowerPoint Presentation:]
Who Was Van Gogh?
- He was a Dutch painter born in 1853 in the Neatherlands
- we’ll look at where that is on another slide
- He wrote many letters to his brother Theo
- These letters are how we know so much about him, his life,
and his artworks.
- He took inspiration from nature and from impressionist painters like
Monet
- You just learned about Monet and the landscapes he
painted, Van Gogh also learned about these, and they inspired
his works, although his work has some significant differences
- He was very poor during his life, and his fame didn’t occur until after
his death
- Shortly after Vincent died, his brother Theo died, too, so
Theo’s wife decided to make it her mission to share Vincent’s
art with the world because that is what Theo wanted to do
before he passed. Thanks to her, Vincent is now one of the
most famous artists to have lived.
Van Gogh’s Style
- He often used bright, vibrant colors
- like blues and yellows
- He used large visible brush strokes

2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool

Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
- Impasto – thick paint, even more exaggerated than Monet
- He tried to create movement in his pieces
- the paintings feel alive, achieves this with color and impasto
lines
- He wanted to express the experience he had while he was looking at
the scene he painted
- Often depicted nature
- and would paint en plein air like Monet and Impressionist
painters
- He is a post-Impressionist artist
- post-Impressionism is like Impressionism in many ways,
however, they use more exaggeration and emphasis
- they took the things they liked about Impressionism, left out
the things they didn’t, and added new things they were
interested in, thus creating a new art
Van Gogh vs Monet
- Ask students which painting they think belongs to each artist
**Questions from my notes**
Responding to Van Gogh’s Works
- I will show examples of Van Gogh’s works and ask the students to
point out some things they see in the artworks and describe what it
makes them think or feel, what is their reaction / response to it?
**Questions from my notes**
5 min:
Wrap-up Class
The discussions lasted until the end of class, so at the end I will tell the
students to keep what we talked about in the back of their mind
because we will talk about it again next class and use these ideas to
create our own piece of art in a similar style to Van Gogh
Day 2 3 min:
Students walk into class and sit at their seats.
Take attendance
10 min:
Review what we did last class (learned about Van Gogh, compared his
artistic style with Monet, looked at examples of his work)
Watch video:
Art with Mati & Dada – Van Gogh (7 min)
Have a conversation about why artists made still lifes
- First, explain what a still life is
- Ask students first why they think artists made still lifes

2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool

Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
- Talk about how still lives can be used as a way to find out
about the artist, their life, the things that are important to
them, etc
27 min:
I will have students help me pass out supplies while I call students up
to chose the paper color they want for their still life.
Then, I will walk the students through the steps of creating their still
life and walk around the class while they are working on each step to
make sure everyone knows what they are doing and help them if
needed.
Steps for drawing the outline of their still life:
1. Trace their vase so it is positioned in the bottom 1/3 of their
paper, but doesn’t go all the way to the end (we don’t want it
to touch the bottom)
2. Use our rulers to draw a line to show the surface that the vase
is sitting on.
3. Fill in the top 2/3 of the paper with different types of flowers
that also look like they are coming out of the vase (you won’t
be able to see every stem, however, you will be able to see
some of them and we want it to look like they are actually
coming out of the vase, not just floating in space.
I will tell the students that they will also include one object of their
choice in their still life, which they can draw from memory, I can print a
reference photo for them, or they can ask permission to bring the
object into school to draw it from observation (how still lifes are
usually made) ((**This will have to be okayed by the teachers so that
we can make sure it is appropriate for school and that they will be
allowed to bring it in with them. I will also make sure they understand
that they are only bringing it in for art class and unless they get
permission it is not to be used outside of art)) Students can also pick
an object that is already at school (like a book, art supplies, etc)
5 min:
Wrap-up Class
Clean up all supplies and turn in work so that they can continue
working on it next art class.
Day 3 3 min:
Students walk into class and sit at their seats.
Take attendance
37 min:
I will go over what we did last class and get the students started by
passing out papers and having students help me distribute supplies.

2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool

Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
The students will start by finishing any flowers they would still life to
add and then add their personal object into their still life.
Then, when students are ready, I will pass out the oil pastels so they
can begin to use those to add color to their piece.
When students are at that step, I will also do a simple demo over the
projector to show how students can use the oil pastels to create the
same visual effect that Van Gogh included in his pieces with his
impasto technique.
I will walk around and check on student’s progress as they work on
their pieces.
5 min:
Wrap-up Class
I will check in with the class at the end to see where we are and if we
need more time to complete the still life, in which case we will use the
next class to continue working on them.
They will clean up their spaces and turn in all supplies before they
push in their chairs and line up to wait for their teacher to come.

Clean-up procedures The students will be instructed how to clean up at the end of class.
to consider for this unit They will put all materials away in their correct spots and turn in their
artwork to the area I tell them so nothing gets misplaced before next
class.
Closure/review- What Each class we will have conversations about the work they are doing
comes next in curriculum and how it relates to Van Gogh, his art and style, and the different
that will build on student concepts we’ve learned about during this unit.
knowledge from this unit? At the end of the project, I would like the students to complete a
simple self-reflection about the work they made and the concepts
we’ve been learning about during this unit.
Supplemental Activities If students finish early I will have coloring sheets of Van Gogh’s
that connect with this famous works that the students can work on with crayons or colored
unit and corresponding pencils.
lessons.
Unit Reflection for art
educator
(Considerations for
when you teach this
again in the future)

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Teacher Candidate Name: Margaret Derrig
School: Huy / Winterset Elementary School
Second Grade: Van Gogh – Still Life
Image of teacher
sample or samples to
help students learn
processes
APA Reference list of
sources and research
conducted for this unit

Include any handouts you have created, any slide shows, and any assessments you
plan to use with this unit.

2021-2022 Unit Planning Outline Tool