Circles, Spots and Polka Dots: Art Show 2015

This was our Third Annual Circle, Spots and Polka Dots Art Show.  The goals is to create art with circles using many methods over several weeks. The children love the repetition of using the circles. They love that we can find circles anywhere at anytime. 

It opens their eyes to the fact that circles are a huge part of our lives and world. 

The Art Work

The sculpture was created with recycled materials that families contributed from home.
The artists took turns adding pieces over the course of a week. They were able
to come back and add more pieces as the sculpture grew. The base of the
sculpture was a piece of artwork created for last year's art show.
After it was finished the artists each shared a title or words about the piece of art, which
were displayed around the edge of the table with their names. 

Each child selected circles from a large collection of paper circles that
had been cut from construction paper and hole punches. They glued them in layers
from largest to smallest. Each child had one circle stack displayed on this tower.

These circles were created with tissue paper and glue. The children chose their strips and
used glue sticks to attach them. The next step was to paint over them with watered down
white glue and a paint brush to create a shiny and smooth effect. They then folded the edges
onto the back or cut them with scissors.

The children each had turns to wet-felt balls from white and dyed wool. They also created clay beads.
Some children had a chance to paint the beads and others sewed the strings together.
This was truly a group effort. The strings were attached to a horizontal stick and hung from the ceiling.

The artists used three different sized tree blocks to print small, medium and large circles.
I loved how much their personalities were reflected in the way they chose to use these materials.
They wrote their names with a silver sharpie on the front of the display.

These were created with school glue that had blue watercolor added to it.
The children were shown how to slowly make circles by squeezing and moving the glue bottle.
They were also shown that they could make dots instead of circles.
A day or two later after they had dried, the children used watercolor and q-tips to add more dots,
fill in their circles or create new circles. The labels displayed the children's titles for their artwork.
Names such as: Ocean, The Future, and Circles.

 The Show

Families were invited to attend our art show on a Friday evening. They were encouraged to sign up to bring a circle themed food to contribute. Of course we always love seeing the children and some parents coordinate their outfits to match the theme. This was our biggest year yet and we decided to make it an indoor/outdoor event. The art was inside. Food table and activities were on the playground attached the preschool.

Each child could find a picture of themselves hanging from one of the balloons around the classroom.
The pictures were taken the week before to look as thought they are floating away.

I always love to display any extra circles that I can find around the classroom and
our favorite circle themed books. The children created
many of these circle garlands to hang around the art show as well.

The children helped draw chalk circles up our stairs and along our ramp
to welcome guests to the show.

Everyone seemed very relaxed and the artists were SO proud to have their families attend.
I was very excited that we had 100% of our children attend with family members.

Bubble blowing was a big highlight for the children outside.

The children were surprised to find a Ball Pool under the covered climber.
The enjoyed lounging around and being silly with friends and siblings.

There were many circle themed foods contributed by families.
This is a chance for the parents to show their creative side.
Notice even cups, plates and napkins have polka dots and circles on them.

Some of the menu:
Circle Pasta Salad
Pepperoni, Cheese and Crackers
Circle Cereal Mix
Circle shaped fruit salad
Mini Pizzas
Cookies
Circle Tortilla Chips and Salsa
Meatballs
Circle Cut Veggies

 The children are so proud of their artwork and of course a chance to share their preschool with their families. A big thank you to all the families of Inch By Inch who continue

to make this event wonderful for us all.

You can find previous year's posts here and here.