The Dot

For this project, we integrated Art with a Language Arts lesson. We began by reading "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. The story was about a little girl who doubted her abilities as an artist, but learned that a lot of inspiration and creativity can come from something as simple as starting with a dot. I think that this story will really help my students to gain confidence in their own abilities, as well as finding their artistic creativity as well. We then used coffee filters to make our own dots, and decorated them with markers, crayons and oil pastels. We then painted the filters with water and watched the marker bleed across, as well as how the crayon and pastels reacted.

For an extension activity, I could have my students do this activity using only the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue). We could then paint the water onto the coffee filter, and write down observations that we see based on what happens when the colors blend (the blending spots should create the secondary colors of orange, green, and purple).