Today we read the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. It's the story of a young girl named Vashti. Vashti doesn’t believe she can draw. She sits through an entire art class but does not make a mark on her sheet of paper. Vashti’s teacher is understanding and she encourages Vashti by saying,“Just make a mark and see where it takes you.” Vashti grabbed a marker and gave the paper a good, strong jab. “There!”

The Dot

Pointillism Painting

Undeterred by Vashti’s reluctance, her teacher asks her to sign the page. She does sign the paper and leaves the classroom. When she returns a week later, her ‘artwork’ has been framed and is hanging near her teacher’s desk. Upon reflection, Vashti decides that she is quite capable of improving on her first dot. Before long, she is confidently experimenting with watercolors and larger sheets of paper. She creates an entire collection of artistic dots – every size and color.

The book The Dot's theme is to have confidence in what you do, while celebrating the differences that make all of our artwork uniquely ours. It's also a gentle reminder that if first you don't succeed try, try again — the very essence of all art, the experimentation and learning and creating that comes based on those previous experiences.

After reading our book we looked at several artist's pointillism works of art. Then the children drew out their designs in pencil and then painted it with paint daubers and q-tips. Afterwards the children colored a collaborative dot project.