D is for Dot Painting Letter D Craft

I was having a moment of nostalgia the other day going through some of my daughter’s old art projects, and I came across some Australian dot painting that we did a couple years ago so d for dot painting became the perfect choice when we did our Letter D Craft this week!

Dot painting is a beautiful Australian Aborigine tradition that is great for learning about and celebrating Australian culture while developing fine motor muscles that kids need to be able to hold and manipulate a pencil.

After this craft, exploring dot painting further (in it’s various forms like pointillism) with an open-ended art invitation set up in your classroom.

Letter D Craft – D is for Dot Painting

To start, gather your materials:

• Black construction paper or cardstock
• Scissors (for the parent or teacher)
• Various colors of paint
• Q-tips
• Paint trays

You can use other colors of paper but I really loved how the black card stock really let the colors pop.

Using the scissors, cut a lower case d and an upper case D shape for each child.

Place the paint in your preferred containers – I love using little artist palettes but small jars would also work great. Set a couple q-tips in each paint color so kids can use the same color at the same time while preventing the q-tips from mixing the colors.

Encourage the kids to gently dip the q-tips in the paint and create dot paintings on their letters.

Some kids will want to paint strokes, and if they understand the concept of the craft and want to paint with strokes anyways, I just allow it. Most are excited to make the dots but I think developing a love for the artistic process and developing familiarity with the letters should be the focus – not becoming fixated on doing the craft as intended. (As long as the kids are being respectful to their materials, I’m all for them doing their own thing.)

Our D is for Dot Letter D Craft turned out beautifully and was great for their fine motor skills. Some of the kids needed to take breaks because they aren’t as used to holding pencils for longer periods of time, but all of them were excited to complete their crafts which is great for naturally developing those skills.

Hop over and check out our Australian Aboriginal Dot Painting activity if you’re interested in exploring this theme further.

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