Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous artists in the world, and often one of the first that kids learn. Thanks to Disney’s Little Einsteins, my daughter learned to recognize “The Starry Night” when she was only 2. I love introducing her to all kinds of art, music and culture and giving her background knowledge that will help her later in life, and allow her to develop her own tastes and opinions. Today we had the opportunity to check out a picture book about Vincent Van Gogh and his journey to create his most famous work. We also had lots of fun creating Van Gogh activities for kids to pair with it!

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Vincent Can’t Sleep: Van Gogh Paints the Night Sky was written by Barb Rosenstock and illustrated by Mary GrandPre. In this beautifully illustrated book, the reader is introduced to Vincent Van Gogh when he is just a young boy. He has trouble sleeping because his mind is full of questions and creativity he can’t contain. He sneaks out and escapes to a wide open field where he looks into the night sky and imagines. As he grows up, he studies and finds work, but still continues to chase the creative images in his head. When he finally creates the painting that he is most known for, he can rest at last.

This story takes readers inside the mind of an artist and shows how creativity and determination can lead to great things. The illustrations are vivid and breathtaking, taking inspiration from Van Gogh’s famous style. The lyrical text and gorgeous images may inspire kids to look at the night sky a little differently as well. The book also includes an author’s note which gives more information on the painting and the artist behind it.

Creating our Own Starry Nights!

Van Gogh Inspired Art – Since “The Starry Night” is one of my daughter’s favorite paintings, we wanted to try creating our own. The Pinterested Parent created an awesome version of “The Starry Night” using a fork (check out the post here), so we decided to give it a try. First, we spread some blue and white paint onto a piece of black paper, and smeared it around. Then we used plastic forks to create swirls and circles in the sky to mimic Van Gogh’s work. She had a lot of fun creating the swirling patterns, and she thought it was really funny to use a fork for art!

Textures in Artwork – I love that this book touches on the textures of things, and how Van Gogh thought about them. His artwork is full of rich textures, reflecting the way he saw the world. Talk to your kids about the various textures in Van Gogh’s paintings, and point them out in the book. We decided to take this one step further and experiment with some of the textures that he uses in his artwork, using the book as our guide.

Inspired by this post from Messy Little Monster, I decided to have my daughter use aluminum foil to practice making different textures and designs. I set out a sheet of aluminum foil, and poured some blue, white and yellow paints onto a plate. I encouraged her to use her paintbrush or her fingers to mimic the swirls, circles and lines that she saw in the sky in the painting. She had so much fun swirling the paint around (as did I!), and loved that her sky and stars looked like the one in the pictures.

Using Chalk to Make New Colors!

Color Mixing with Chalk – For young kids, this book offers a great opportunity to discuss color mixing. Since the weather was finally nice enough to go outside (yay!!) and use our new chalk, I decided to use it to teach her about mixing colors. Start with red, yellow and blue chalk and encourage your kids to draw shapes or blocks onto the concrete. Make sure that some of the blocks are overlapping. Use your hand or a paper towel to blend the colors together until you see a new color forming. You can also spray the shapes down with some water to help them blend better. My daughter thought it was so fun to guess what colors were going to appear.

Creating Pretty Pictures in Your Head

Coping Strategies for Sleeping – Van Gogh has trouble sleeping because he has can’t shut his mind off. Some kids may have trouble doing the same, so this is a great opportunity to introduce them to some coping strategies. Van Gogh is able to quiet his mind when he looks at the starry skies. My mother helped us when we were younger by encouraging us to create pretty pictures in our heads. She built a picture in our minds with descriptive language, or helped us remember a particularly fun day. We have introduced the same technique to my daughter when she has a bad dream or has trouble sleeping, and it has been working well for her as well.

Discussion – People called Van Gogh crazy because he thought differently than they did. This book offers a great opportunity to talk to kids about accepting differences in themselves and others. Ask them why it’s important to sometimes think differently or walk your own path. The greatest inventions, works of art and ideas came from people who thought differently!

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