One of my kids favorite books to read is Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn’t Sorry. The book, written by Fatsu Gilberti, gives a great background on the artist with fun cartoon illustrations making this book a resource for elementary age kids. While reading, the author discusses Yayoi’s love of pumpkins. While I was making this project, it happened to be fall and pumpkins were readily available. If you do not have the book, you can either purchase it through this link or you can watch my video below where I read the book aloud and then give the lesson that is described in this post.
Materials
- a pumpkin (real or fake of any size)
- paint (I use acrylic in the video, but smaller kids might want to use something that is washable)
- Yayoi Kusama book
- q-tips or other items to make dots (I really like medical swabs because they don’t fuzz up easily)
Project
Like I said in my video, this project is great for little kids because there isn’t a ton of planning or right and wrong with how to paint the pumpkin. I tried to stay with the dot theme to go along with the book that was read, however, it is understandable for kids to want to do their own thing so I tend not to get in the way of their creative freedom as much as possible.
It was Halloween time and my kids were very excited about the holiday, which made it easy for me to get them excited in the project I had for them. To make it as mess free as possible, I set their pumpkins on paper plates, but found that having dedicated table clothes or canvas for at home activities or school tables makes clean up far less stressful when working with paint, clay, or anything messy.
I read the book and talked about patterns and shapes (if you are teaching elementary age kids). Then I had them pick out at least 3 colors and gave them a painting tool (q-tip) for each color in order to avoid muddying up the colors on their plate. Then I let them have at it. I try not to encourage or direct them after the initial instruction so not to discourage their creativity.
My son didn’t have a plan to his pumpkin, as is the case with 5 year olds, while mine was more thoughtful. My final pumpkin can be seen at the end of the video. Variations of this project can be made to accommodate age groups or intended purposes. For example, students might have to stay within a color theme for an installation piece or you might have students paint the entire pumpkin first and use at least three different size circles for older grades, Ultimately, the project is fun and connects art to the holidays without being blatantly Halloween or Thanksgiving.
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In the Art Room with Mrs. D 