lesson seeds
grades 2-3
STARRY myths
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Visual Art 3: Choosing and evaluating a range of subject
matter, symbols, and ideas. Achievement standard:
Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to
communicate meaning
Extension:
Upload the created
constellations stories
paintings into Little
Bird Tales and create a
new constellation myth
book.
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7 Use information gained
from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the
words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the
text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.9 Compare and contrast
the most important points and key details presented in
two texts on the same topic.
• pencils, pens
• Once Upon a Starry
Night book
• vanGogh’s Starry
Night painting
• large white paper
• tempra paint and
brushes
• chart paper and
markers
• Music/Music
Player
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FINE ARTS
Materials:
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CONTENT
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Pre-assessment:
Students view images of constellations in the sky at night, trace the connections between
the stars and describe what shapes, characters or stories come to mind. Key vocabulary
word: constellation
Engagement:
Read the book “Once Upon a Starry Night”. Read the introduction as a whole group and
then split the class into 10 small groups. Assign each group one of the 10 stories about
the constellations and associated myths found in the book. After reading, have all
groups share out to the whole class. Key vocabulary word: myth
Activity:
View vanGogh’s Starry Night and ask students to describe what shapes or patterns they
see in this depiction of the sky. Identify similarities and differences to the constellation
images from earlier.
Ask students to think about the adjectives they would associate with the images in
vanGogh’s artwork. IE: the swirls look like it’s windy, the colors are sharp.
Create a table chart with the columns “art element” and “adjective” and fill in with each
of the answers. Then, tell students that you will be playing a piece of music and they
will move around the room. When the music stops, you will call out an art element and
they will need to show what the adjective looks like with their bodies in a frozen
position. For example, “line” could have the adjective “swirly” and their body would
need to look swirly. Musical suggestion: Aurora Borealis Concerto Movement 3. Key
Vocabulary: adjective, art element
Closing:
Do the movement to the music again, but this time when the music stops, students
will need to form a constellation in groups of 4-5 that portrays what the adjective
might look like.
The Starry Night Myth
In their constellation groups, students will paint their constellation highlighting their chosen
art element (line, shape, color, etc). They will then write a brief myth about their constellation
and why that element was important.
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