TCDS208 Creative Arts - Dot Painting for Kindergarteners: Developing with Art Assignment Solution

Introduction

How a child develops has long been a topic of study for scholars, psychoanalysts and researchers over the world. Naturally, we have many theories of child development with us today, although some of them are more pertinent to early childhood educators than the rest. There are Freud’s psychosexual child development theories, Erikson’s psychosocial child development theories, Piaget’s cognitive theories, and more (Cherry 2017). These theories often form the basis for constructing lesson plans in early childhood classrooms. Even in an arts classroom for young children, educators plan activities that align with the stages of child development as indicated in some of these theories. One of the most important theories that supports the pedagogy of early childhood education is Jean Piaget’s cognitive theories (Huitt & Hummel 2003, McLendon 2011). This article will discuss a dot painting activity in a kindergarten arts classroom, with children aged between 3 and 5 years. It will attempt to understand how various arts activities have a deeper connection to child development and how these can also connect to culture and community. Therefore, the role of the teacher is of paramount importance during this activity and Erikson’s psychosocial stages will have some bearing on how the teachers would guide or instruct in order to achieve positive outcomes.

The Activity

Visual arts can include a plethora of activities that are visible, tangible and communicate some meaning through their form (StagePage 2016). This article has chosen to discuss the dot painting activity, which draws from one of the traditional art forms of indigenous Australia. In this kind of painting, the drawings and outlines will have to be painted only with dots of various sizes and colours. The output can be any object or any pattern (as is shown in the images below). But the painting will need to be done only in dots, big or small and in any combination of colours, as suits the imagination of the painter.

In the kindergarten classroom, this activity will involve various input tools (like a half-cut carrot, an ear-bud, a match-stick, a round sponge, etc.) that generate circular patterns on paper when printed with colours (see images below). For example, children will be provided with blank canvases, pencils and paints; but instead of paintbrushes, they will be asked to paint with objects like a carrot, ear-bud, nail-head, etc. and only in circular patterns. They can choose to dip the objects in any colour they wish and stamp circular patterns on their drawings to finish their painting. They can explore as many colours and shapes/objects they want. 

This activity is expected to generate interest and engagement among kindergarteners, who can develop ideas about using commonplace objects in a creative way and using them with paint to communicate their ideas. Also, since children are free to explore their own patterns, designs or shapes in this dot painting activity, they have plenty of scope to create colourful paintings and impress their peers and teacher. Teachers can guide and scaffold only if children are holding objects in the wrong way. They can otherwise appreciate and encourage more designs from the class. At the end, everyone explains their painting in their own words to the class, thus having an opportunity for free-flow language development.