The celebration of Dot Day in elementary school art rooms has really taken off this year and I've enjoyed seeing art teachers around the country are posting on Facebook. Here I am sharing Cassie Stephens' article that was published in the September 2016 SchoolArts Magazine, along with photographs of student artwork from many teachers in the hope it will inspire you for next year.
Dot Day
The Dot by
Peter H. Reynolds is an excellent book to read to your students at the start of
a new school year. If you’re not familiar, it’s the story of Vashti, a young
student who doesn’t believe in her artistic abilities. Her teacher, however,
does. By hanging up Vashti’s work, the teacher motivates Vashti to create more.
She grows in her artistry and, in the end, inspires others to create.
Dot
Day, which is a celebration both of the book and of creativity, takes place on
September 15th. On this day, artists are encouraged to use their
imaginations to create a masterpiece from a dot. I love starting the school
year with Dot Day for a couple of reasons. One, anyone can make a dot!
Therefore, the pressure to make something “perfect” is removed. We all can make
a “make a mark and see where it takes you.”
The
other reason I love to celebrate Dot Day is because it allows all of my 400
elementary art students to have a work of art on display at the start of the
school year. We have an Open House a month into the new school year. After
reading The Dot and creating
dot-based works of art, I am able to decorate the halls of the school with a
dot created by each child.
Having
done Dot Day for a couple years, I’ve come up with a variety of dot-themed
projects. Here are some of my favorites by grade level.
Kindergarten
For
kindergarten, I love to start the school year with a paper sculpture lesson.
After reading The Dot, students are
given a paper that has been precut into a 12” circle. On their first day of
art, these young artists learn how to make a variety of lines with strips of
paper and how to adhere them to their circle. These make for a wonderful
three-dimensional dot display!
First
Grade
Each
year, my first graders create a large collaborative mural outside of the art
room. For Dot Day, that entailed them all painting an inexpensive paper plate
with concentric circles and a variety of lines. Previously painted papers were
used to add “petals” to what became our Dot Day flowers. Finally, after
learning about artist Heather Galler, students worked in groups to paint giant
sheets of patterned papers that were used to create the landscape background.
Second
Grade
Second
grade learned about the artist Wassily Kandinsky for their dot-making
creations. For this lesson, students used cardboard pizza rounds. One side was
painted black and the other white. Students used tempera paint to create a
reversible work of art that hung in a large bank of windows.
For
activities for other grades and more detailed descriptions and videos of the
lessons, please visit cassiestephens.blogspot.com and search Dot Day!
Cassie
Stephens teaches kindergarten thru fourth grade artists at Johnson Elementary
in Franklin, Tennessee. She is a contributing editor for SchoolArts and the
author of cassiestephens.blogspot.com.
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