Vincent Van Gogh

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Continental Café

EYFS Area of learning > Personal, social & emotional development > Building Relationships

Show the children Van Gogh’s 1888 painting ‘Café Terrace at Night’ in the Slideshow , ‘Van Gogh’s paintings’. Tell the children the name of the painting, and talk about how we know that it’s a night time painting. Look at the tables and chairs, arranged outside the café on the terrace. Can the children spot the customers sitting at the tables, and the waiter with his white apron?

Visit a real café with small groups of children, and create your own role play café in your setting – outdoors on the patio if possible. Think of a name for your café and make it attractive with table cloths, small vases of flowers, cups and saucers and napkins. Choose food with a continental flavour, such as cut-up croissants and platters of fruit. Provide white aprons for the waiters and waitresses, a pencil and pad for taking orders and writing bills, play money, a cash till and a tip jar. Put out just a couple of tables so that the café is not overwhelmed. Monitor carefully to make sure no child eats too much and offer every child the chance to be both a waiter and a customer.

Can I take your picture, please?

EYFS Area of learning > Communication & language > Listening, Attention and Understanding

Look at some Van Gogh portraits, such as his 1890 portrait ‘Peasant Girl in a Straw Hat’, his 1888 portrait of the postman Joseph Roulin (in the Slideshow , ‘Van Gogh’s paintings’) and his 1888 portrait ‘Girl with Ruffled Hair’. Explain to the children that a portrait is a picture of a person.

Look at the appearance of the person in the portrait – their hair colour, their eye colour, their size. Does the person look happy, sad, kind, cross, scary? Does the portrait show just the face and shoulders or the whole body?

Look at the colours Van Gogh used. Look at the background and see if you can spot his characteristically thick brush strokes. Explain to the children that the picture they are looking at is a reproduction – not the original picture that Van Gogh painted. Show the children different prints of the same portrait, so they can see how the colours vary a little in each version.