First grade has been focusing on Vincent van Gogh during the month of February. Older kids tend to remember van Gogh as "That guy who cut his ear off!", so instead, I introduced the class to his art through the book The Starry Night by Neil Waldman. We discussed the concepts of fiction (fantasy) and nonfiction (reality) and I told the kids that while Vincent van Gogh was a real artist who lived and died many years ago, this fictional story imagines what might happen if van Gogh visited New York City today. This first grade class is particularly large and loud, so instead reading the book to them, I'd made a video of it to show on the SmartBoard. Yay, technology!
