Each year in September I celebrate Dot Day with my students. It is actually an international celebratory day, like National Linguine Day, World Afro Day and National Cheese Toast Day (all Wednesday Sept 15 apparently according to daysoftheyear.com). I love to celebrate dot day though because I use it as my introduction to teaching art.
Art can be really stressful for some kiddos, especially any with anxiety, perfectionist tendencies or struggle with fine motor challenges. Quickly the idea in their head and what's on the page don't match up and things can fall apart. I use the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds each year to help introduce the idea that everyone's art can and will look different, and even the smallest pieces of art can be part of something beautiful.
Click the cover image to find the amazon listing
The Dot tells the story of Vashti, a little girl who is convinced she can't create art. Her angry dot on a page leads to a beautiful journey of self acceptance and celebration of herself as an artist. I always start my dot day art lesson by reading the story and discussing how Vashti changes as the story goes on. Then we talk about all of the important background info for how to have a successful art class, including my favourite question I always ask them:"What happens if the water cup spills?" Usually multiple people raise their hand, all to tell me that I will clean it up. I then tell them that's not possible because I have to bring friends paint or help students with their art, and besides, when the water cup spills the first thing we always do is: SAVE THE ART! We talk about helping our group members and taking care of each other and our beautiful artwork by first moving the art to safe place, then taking care of the spill using paper towels, rags or whatever other materials we have to help clean up the spill.
Once we have covered the ground rules, I give them one piece of cardstock or manilla tag and tell them they can make as few or as many dots as they want with these few requirements:
1) All dots must be created on the manilla tag (things can be glued or attached in some other way but they must be on the manilla tag)
2) All dots must have your initials on the back
3) You must cut out all of the dots yourself (I'm not helping cut out 70 teeny tiny dots)
Next, I let them know that there are stations around the room, including pastels, paint, markers, and usually things like felt or pompoms (depending on how much time I have to get set up). I tell them they can bring their cardstock to whichever tables they want, but they must clean up their space before they move on and they can only move to a table with an empty chair, then the art making (or should I say dot making) begins!
I learn a lot from this art process. First, I can see right away who can follow directions. I can also see who are risk takers and who are apprehensive. I see which kids try to rush and get their 1 dot done and who are going to spend the entire period creating painstakingly detailed dots. Any dots that need drying time hangout on a table with a plastic dollarama table cloth, but as they are completed we staple all of the dry/clean dots right onto the bulletin board to create a collaborative art piece. This year, we decorated our tree bulletin board to create a piece inspired by Wassily Kandinsky's circles.
Comments