Lesson Plan Activity 1

http://www.kinderart.com/painting/vangogh.shtml

This lesson already incorporates several of Gardner's Intelligences:

Body-kinesthetic learners will learn Van Gogh's style best while re-creating the painting Starry Night. The hands on approach appeals to their tactile/learn by doing nature.

Visual-Spatial learners are more apt to learn from the viewing of the work Starry Night and describing what they see. Visual_Spatial learners learn best by working with color and pictures.

Intrapersonal learners would enjoy the personal writing section of this lesson plan that ask the student to reflect on how they used Van Gogh's style. Also the fact that the student are creating painting individually would appeal to the intrapersonal learner by allowing them to work on their own at their own pace.

I would add the following activities to incorporate the other intelligences:

Musical and Interpersonal - I would have students listen to the song Vincent by Don McLean and discuss as a group what the lyrics mean and how it relates to Van Gogh's style. The rythm of the music would obviousdly help the musical learner to focus and remember ideas and the group component would benefit those who have interpersonal skills by being able to share and compare ideas.

Verbal-linguistic - I would have students read a biography of Van Gogh and a description of his painting style.

Mathematical-logical - I would have students compare several works by van Gogh and identify patterns and any similarities/differences in the paintings since mathematical learners like to work with patterns and relationships.

Naturalistic - I think an activity that would suit a naturalistic learner would be to compare Starry Night to an actual picture of a starry night. How do they differ? What qualities to they share?

Existentialist - I would ask an existentialist learner to answer the question "Why do you think Van Gogh chose to paint Starry Night?" to use their ability to tackle deep questions about the human condition.