Jennifer HoganThis week in OLHS we’ve been exploring dot art in the infants classroom. Cotton bud painting is relaxing, very simple and requires very few resources. It promotes fine motor skill and pincer grip development, concentration and focus amongst children of all ages and abilities.
Our junior and senior infants began their cotton bud painting activities by decorating autumn leaf templates in autumnal colours of their choice. The children also enjoyed writing their names in dot art and completing pre writing tracing exercises before they progressed to creating their own art work on large A3 size card. As with most art projects for younger children this activity is more about the process and the skills being practised, rather than the end result but I love the finished artwork.
For this activity all you will need are:
- Paper or card
- Cotton buds (or q-tips)
- Paint or Paint markers
Differentiation:
- Finger painting
- Painting with paint markers for easy grip
- Using the end of a pencil/paint brush instead of using cotton buds
Integration:
- Australian traditional art
Such beautiful, joyful paintings…the colours just zing out. Also reminds me of the Damian Horst dot paintings and Seurat ‘s pointillism…they make me feel good. I can imagine it would also make a good sharing or turn taking activity with the pupils each having their own colour or size of dot maker to add to a template.