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.

Circles, Spots and Polka Dots 2014: Art Show

To kick off our summer, families were invited to join their preschoolers for an evening Art Show. Everyone was encouraged to wear Circles, Spots or Polka Dots. They were also invited to contribute a circle-themed dish to our food table. It is exciting to see all the creativity put into finding circles to wear and eat.

The preschoolers enjoyed showing off their artwork and searching around the room for their "Featured Artist Balloons." 

There was a sensory table full of water beads that attracted quite a crowd (and a few grapes). 

In the block area attendees found ramps and ballpit balls along with a photo slideshow of the children's art process. 

Thank you to all the children and their families for making this event so memorable!

Here is the link to the 

Circle, Spots and Polka Dots 2013 Art Show

Circle, Spots and Polka Dots 2014: The Finished Art

Here is the link about The Process.     

Check out the The Art Show here.

Circles, Spots and Polka Dots 2014: The Process

The Artists

These "mini me" artists were all holding on to real balloons hanging around the art show. One child had suggested "our parents can try and find us."

Printing Circles with Paint

Each day we used a smaller container and a new color of paint to add circles to this collaborative painting. The only direction they were given was not to overlap the lines. Some of the preschoolers enjoyed putting circles inside other circles and others looked for the empty spaces in between. Printing the circles encouraged the children to move slowly and using planning in their artwork.

Redesigning the Wheel

The children were each given a section of the "pie" or "wheel" to paint however they wanted. The pieces were all put back together to create a group piece of art. 

Individual Quilt Squares

For this project the children were pulled aside and asked "How do you want to decorate your square?" They got to choose what type of medium and materials they wanted to use to create circles on their square of paper. After they chose from paintbrushes, glue, printing, markers or whatever they could think up, they were asked for "their plan." The artists did not see each other's artwork until they were all finished. Lots of different methods were used and they were all displayed together.

Bright Dots on Black Paper

The children were given neon circle stickers, white reinforcement stickers and a half sheet of black cardstock. The different approaches were very fun to see. Some children did intentional patterns or rows and others just loaded as many stickers as they could. 

Circle Stacks

The children were presented with multiple sizes of circles and glue. They were encouraged to start with a big circle on bottom and get smaller towards the top. Names were not written on these and they were all added to a mobile that I helped the children hot glue together in no particular order. 

Paper Chains 

The children were given strips of colorful construction paper, markers, stickers and glue sticks. They created one or many circle links and added them to a couple group chains.  These were used to decorate the ceiling for the art show. 

Mandalas

Many of the preschoolers were very interested in creating mandalas with loose parts and also on paper with markers. They were provided with space in the classroom to create and recreate them throughout the month. A few children created some prior to the art show to leave on display.

I believe in process art. I also believe that children should have the experience of being introduced to different methods that are used for creating art.  The simplicity of using circles helps the children gain confidence as artists. We studied several famous artists that focus on circles in their artwork. Simply put, the children walked away with the message: 

If you know what a circle is 

then you can be an artist! 

Also check out our posts about the Finished Products and The Art Show 2014.

This is our post from Circles, Spots and Polka Dots 2013 and Process.