My students never tire of the story of Van Gogh cutting off his ear. I have created embedded readings in French and Spanish here. Van Gogh Readings By Lynn Johnston for French and Van Gogh Readings in Spanish by Lynn Johnston. But besides the story, I can use the art to teach body parts, colors, and shapes. We can describe people, places, and things. We can express opinions, likes, dislikes, and emotions. We can read biographies about the artists and debate whether Van Gogh cut off his own ear of was it Paul Gauguin that cut off Van Gogh’s ear? Students can also research and give opinions on how Van Gogh really died.
Check out these animated versions of Van Gogh paintings! Follow this link Van Gogh 3-D or go to http://www.lucaagnani.com/van_gogh_3d_animation.php.
Students can compare their bedrooms to the room of Van Gogh. Lesson plans here La-Chambre-de-Van-Gogh in French and here in Spanish El cuarto de Van Gogh. Here a template of his room for a directed color and another for Starry Night.
Gauguin et Van Gogh powerpoint in French and Gauguin y Van Gogh powerpoint in Spanish. Here are sentences that can be used for dictation, to illustrate, to act out. They can cut up and race to put them in order. They could be used for students to practice retelling story. Paul Gauguin et Vincent Van Gogh- sentences for French and Paul Gauguin y Vincent van Gogh- sentences for Spanish.
Take your students to a local museum or go to a virtual museum on-line and have the students select their favorite piece of art or the worst piece of art. Have them give the name of the work of art and the artist. Then describe the art and state their opinions and why. These could also be posted to a class website or google classroom. this lesson is always engaging and Van Gogh’s ear continues to show up in strange places like in a backpack during our school unit or in a soup in our food unit.
Checkout these Van Gogh resources in French, Spanish , English and other languages from Amazon.com.
