STEAMed Magazine January 2016 | Page 17

Van Gogh ’ s The Starry Night ( 1889 )
Art and math merge
Similarly , the Common Core Mathematics Standards ( 2010 ) for kindergarten call for students to classify objects into given categories , count the numbers of objects in each category , and sort the categories by count . Most certainly , these goals can be accomplished by asking students to identify and graph what types of pets they own , what their favorite season or snack is , or the number of siblings in their family . Why not use student-created art as a tool for engaging in data analysis ?

Van Gogh ’ s The Starry Night ( 1889 )

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post- Impressionist artist most famous for his self-portraits and his paintings of irises and sunflowers . A primarily self-taught artist , van Gogh produced over 2,000 oil paintings , watercolors , drawings , and sketches , which became in demand only after his death . In fact , van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime . The Starry Night ( 1889 ) by van Gogh is perhaps one of the most well known images in modern culture . In this work , the vibrant blue night sky abounds with swirling clouds , several luminous stars , and a bright crescent moon . Below the rolling hills of the horizon lies a small peaceful town featuring a church and other quiet buildings . This oil-on-canvas depicts van Gogh ’ s view from the window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence , where he spent a year of his life . While we can be fairly certain that van Gogh was not pondering mathematics as he applied the thick gobs of oil paint onto his canvas , kindergarteners experienced firsthand how this starlit masterpiece could be integrated into a rich mathematics lesson , with a focus on graphing .
Figure 2

Art and math merge

Gathered on the classroom carpet , kindergarteners gazed at an image of van Gogh ’ s The Starry Night , projected onto the classroom ’ s whiteboard . After sharing with the students some biographical information about the artist , the kindergarten teacher and I encouraged the young students to express what they liked and disliked about the painting . One boy described the clouds as “ looking like
STEAMed Magazine
17
January 2016 Edition