PeeWees: The Dot

[From PeeWee mom Shaunel...]

I had all plans to do The Snowy Day but it never really came together, and last night I couldn't find the book (as it was hiding under the couch). So, I bagged that idea and went with The Dot by Peter Reynolds. I easily could have done The Dot for 2 weeks, but live and learn.

Synopsis: Vashti hates art because she can't do it. So, her teacher challenges her to just make a mark on her paper and see where it takes her. She grudgingly makes a dot, and signs her name. The next week in art class, her dot is framed on the wall. She says she can do a better dot than that, so she goes on to make every kind of dot one could imagine and they end up at the school's art show.

I decided to focus on dots and circles. I was terrible at picture taking, but there's a video.

Open Play: We built a marble track and sent our marble dots down the track. The kids, of course, adored this. We did it for a good 30 min trying different routes and experimenting with various pieces.


Circle Time: The kids are all singing the stand-up song so well. Jackson even sang it randomly during our vacation! We counted dots and noticed how three circles made a snowman. We sang our ABC's and read the book. I was surprised that everyone was interested in the story to the end. Jackson was the only one who got a bit distracted. We ended circle time with "Frosty the Snowman." Bodie sang every word and then explained how his Dad doesn't know the words.

Snack Time: We used the apple corer, peeler and slicer to make our apples into beautiful circles. What a fun kitchen tool that thing is. We also enjoyed some cheerios and ritz crackers. Poppy and Henry braved the kiwi slices, but Bodie and Jackson were not such fans.

Dance break to Frosty

Art: I showed them how we were making dots with markers, paint and crayons. As soon as paint was mentioned, they all waited patiently for the paint and refused to use the markers and crayons. Hilarious. Poppy and Henry kept saying "dot, dot, dot" as they painted. Jackson and Bodie talked more about tractors and whales. All of them did a fabulous job at staying focused. As soon as they started to finish, they held my hand as we signed their papers like Vashti in the book.

Activity: We went outside to sing circle games (ring around the rosey, and motorboat), and then sorted a basket of clutter from around the house into circles and not circles. They all did amazingly at this. Henry was definitely the most vocal "Is this a circle?" "YEES!" or "NOOO ;)" It was fabulous. We ended with the parachute.

End: Read the book, and had a little extra time so we did some play dough dots, and sang King Kong.

Great day!