The Dot

We started off reading my favoritttte art book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. The book tells a story of a girl who thinks she can't draw. From there she embarks on a journey of self-discovery of her own artistic abilities.

So we did something crazy in the art room. We painted on the first day of class.... In every grade... Un-heard of, I know! The kids were super excited to get to paint on their first day. For their project, I pre-cut large circles. Then I had every student in the school paint a dot. Grades 1-3 first drew designs onto their dot because good artists draw out their ideas. Then they painted with tempera paint. Each day, I limited their color palette to three colors. The first day of classes painted with yellow, green, and blue. The second day had red, orange, and yellow. And the final day of classes had blue, purple, and magenta. This helped to create the rainbow effect. The kindergarteners had a slightly different task. First they drew designs on their dot using crayons and then painted using tempera cakes instead of regular tempera paint. Tempera cakes are somewhat similar to watercolors. Students must use a wet brush to activate the dried circles of paint. Because wax and water-based paints are arch-nemesis, the crayon shows through the tempera cake paint. 


I began to assemble their dots into a large mural but felt that the mural still felt too individualistic. It needed something to unite all the dots. To do this, I painted a black edge around all the dots. I then assembled the dots into the mural. Lastly, I put the words "We Are Harmony" across the mural in white letters. This is the school song that Mr. Kamp has been teaching to the students the last couple weeks. I just finished hanging this piece and it can now be seen in the hallway just outside of the office at Harmony. I'm thrilled with how this turned out and can't wait to see what else my artists make this year.


I got this project from "Art with Mr. E." He's like the Lebron James of art teachers. Seriously, check out his blog. You won't be disappointed.