What can you make with one dot? A story, of course! Students start with a dot and then draw the full picture. Once their picture is complete, students will compose a short story (three to five sentences). This could easily be adapted to older students: Give each student a picture of a dot and have them write a three- to five-paragraph story.
Dot Day Celebration
Like many other art teachers around the world, my students participated in International Dot Day. The students dressed up in polka dots, we watched the story of The Dot and sang along to The Dot song.
If you have not read the book The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds, it’s a must-have for the art teacher!
Two of my classes made the giant 3-d stuffed dots. These were super fun to make. I traced a hula hoop onto a large piece of color-diffusing paper (like a giant coffee filter). I tried to find this particular banner paper online and it may be out of print now. The closest thing I could find is this size paper. We used liquid watercolors, eye droppers and paint dotters to paint the paper. Then, we stapled two of the circles together and stuffed it with crumpled paper.
We made several different types of smaller dot pictures throughout the day. The kindergartners made dot pictures with cut construction paper. The lesson description is in a past blog post here. The first graders made similar dot pictures, but used cardboard circles as their base. I had ordered some precut tissue paper circles a couple of years ago and these were perfect for this lesson.
Several of the classes were shown how to use concentric circles to create a design and they used watercolor paints, Sharpies, paint dotters and dry erase crayons (which work really nicely on paper too.) I let the kids take the lead and if they had a different idea, they just went with it.
I wanted to highlight the following three artworks below, because they are just so creative and fun. The first one was made by a 5th grader. He wanted to paint on a paper towel. So, he taped a paper towel to a piece of cardstock and then painted his design with watercolors. Isn’t it beautiful? The next circular design caught my eye because of the unexpected silly face! I love it! The third is just striking because of all the colors and is a good example of the concentric circle design.
You can see in the photo below that I like to tack up the related book along with the display. I just use T-Pins to hold the book up without poking through them. I also ordered a Make Your Mark poster from the Fablevision store. I wore a Make Your Mark t-shirt as well!
Just start with a mark and make these murals.
The beauty of these murals is that the students learn several art concepts, such as outlining and shading, as they progress throughout the project. Day one consists of simply making the outlines. The next day students fill in their circles, and on the third day, students learn shading. One project, three lessons.
Find your inner dot with this stitched string art project.
Suitable for fourth graders and up, these stitched dots bring a pop of color to these geometric circles. It’s also the perfect art project to sneak in a quick math lesson about circles and angles. You’ll need yarn, paint, and a 10×10 square of cardboard for each student. Choose neon yarn and your students will make a very bright mark indeed.
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Paint you own dot.
Suitable for both younger and older students, it takes just a few supplies to make these paper plate dots: paper plates, black markers, and tempera cake paints. Students use the marker to create their design and then use the tempera paints to fill in their designs with color. Unlike some of the other projects on this list, this project can be started and finished in one 45-minute class period.
