Contents Pg 1 Connections Pg 3 Inspiration Pg 5 Between Home and School Pg 7 Balloon Painting Pg 13 Dots, Dots and More Dots Pg 15 Experiments Pg 31 More Experiments Pg 37 Creating Our Obliteration Room Pg 43 Final Reflections Pg 47 Dots Continued
Connections... Our NIS ELC takes inspiration from the educators and researchers in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Their worldrenowned approach to Early Years education focuses on the children being the masters of their own learning. Each child is respected as an individual and as an important member of the group. Teachers, rather than being the knowledge holders as in traditional classrooms, are instead co-researchers and facilitators who help the children to develop their ideas by providing contexts and provocations that challenge the children to think more deeply and explore a wide range of possibilities. These explorations often develop into projects.
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A project may begin with a simple wondering, an event or as in this case be inspired by experiences and other people. Another principal of the Reggio Emilia approach is the connection between the children, different spaces within the school, the home and the wider community. The Dots project highlights the importance of these connections as it would not have been possible without them. The Dots project also has connections with our PYP curriculum, framed within the Kindergarten How We Express Ourselves unit of inquiry. Through this unit the children are encouraged to explore many expressive languages and the ways they can be used to communicate.
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Inspiration… When the Kindergarten class read ‘The Dot’ by Peter H Reynolds, the children became interested in the main character Vashti, and how she was encouraged to create art by starting with a simple dot. This inspired our children to use dots in their own artwork.
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These different approaches may reveal something about the children’s intentions. The atelierista noticed that the children who painted the whole balloon seemed more interested in the idea of painting a balloon and less interested in the dots. While children who intentionally painted circular dots also spent more time studying the photographs. The children using their fingers to paint dots seemed to have decided that the paint brushes were not the right shape and had therefore found an alternative way of painting.
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Dots, dots and more dots‌ After painting the balloons and decorating one wall in the atelier, the children were keen to explore more of Kusama’s art. M was still interested in the Obliteration Room and so he introduced this to the rest of the Kindergarten children.
Yayoi Kusama's Obliteration Rooms are art installations that ask for public participation in the creation of the art. In the beginning the rooms have white walls, floor and ceiling and are filled with white objects and furniture. Over time each visitor adds their own colourful dots to the elements of the room until no white remains and the whole space has been obliterated by colour and dots. 13
Experiments‌ After asking the question “how did the artist make the dots?", the children had time to think about how dots could be created. Many children had discussions about the dots, some initiated by the children themselves and others initiated by the atelierista. Through these discussions the children came up with several theories about the techniques Kusama used to create the dots. The atelierista suggested that the children could experiment with each of these techniques; splatter painting, feet painting, dabber pens, stamping and stickers.
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Below is an excerpt from one discussion about the dots: P “The artist made it” (the dots) J “Yeah! The artist painted all of the dots.” A “Her mixed the paint and used a hairbrush to dab the paint.” M “A big brush!” D “A dot brush.” R “She used a paint brush.” S “They used a round paint brush and dab it on the paint and then it comes into a circle.” W “One at a time.” E “I think they splash the paint.” M “The floor like feet painting. The this (points at toes) makes dots.” J “Maybe they stamp everything.” C “I think they’re stickers because there was a lot of them.” 16
r e t t a l Sp
g n i t n i Pa
E “I make lines not dots!” M “Yeah I see lines.” C “I do lines too.”
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The children have used dabber pens many times before, so they were confident that the pens would make circular dots. However, when using dabber pens this time, the children noticed that they could also make splat shaped marks. These splats can only be made by using a fast, hard motion when bringing the dabber pen down on to the paper.
Dabbe
r Pens
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M “It’s not dots.” Y “Wooaahhh!! It’s too slippery!” Mi “It’s too sticky!”
Feet P
aintin
The children got very messy and had great fun stomping, slipping and sliding in the paint. 21
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S t a m p i n g 23
S “It circles not dots, there’s no middle” J “Yeah it’s just circles.” T “Look I made circle.” A “Too many circles.”
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s r e k c i St As the children experimented, they started to notice that they could create pictures and patterns using the dot stickers. This realization influenced the way they looked at the photographs of the Obliteration Rooms. They began noticing more lines and patterns in the dots.
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Reflections... After carrying out all five experiments the children reflected on their experiences of each technique. The reflections started with small group discussions, during which the atelierista took notes and voice recordings to create an archive of the children's thoughts. Later, during whole class discussions the atelierista used the archive to feedback to the class and spark new discussions.
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The children compared the results of their experiments with photographs of Kusama's Obliteration Rooms.
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A small group spent time exploring the school looking at dierent spaces. Eventually they decided to put two large pieces of paper on the Commons walls. They placed dabber pens next to one and stickers next to the other. The group also wrote an email to all of the teachers asking them to explain the experiment to their students.
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Dabbers and Stickers... The paper, stickers and dabber pens were left in the Commons for a few days. Students and teachers from across the school tested both the dabbers and stickers. The Kindergarten children were excited to see what was happening and were keen to visit their experiment. 33
Did Yayoi Kusama Use Dabber Pens or Stickers? After the large scale experiment the children once again looked at the photos of the original Obliteration Rooms. They also looked carefully at the large dabber pen and sticker pictures, they noticed that some people had made lines with the dabber pens and this was, for many children, the final clue that helped them decided that stickers were used in the original rooms. Several children shared their ideas and arguments for and against the dabbers and stickers. J “I can see the stickers peeling off so she did use stickers for real!” M “It’s stickers because so many dots and no lines.” S “Yeah I know it was stickers because they’re all circles, even the lines are made of circles.” R “The people used the dabber pens too hard and there are splats but the stickers are all dots.” T “The paint is line here” (T points to a line of paint that has run down the paper.)
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Did Kusama Use Dabber Pens or Stickers? After all of the discussions and reflections the children voted for either dabber pens or stickers by sitting next to their chosen technique. Most children had come to the conclusion that Kusama had used stickers in her Obliteration Rooms.
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How Many Stickers? Several children were interested to find out how many stickers had been added to our large paper experiment. They started by counting groups of 10, crossing off each sticker as they counted it. One child kept a tally of groups of ten. The children then counted by 10s and created groups of 100s. This is where it got really difficult. With a little help from their teachers the group worked out that there were 1140 stickers on the paper.Â
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Creating Our Obliteration Room The children decided to create their own Obliteration Room. They talked about having a white room with white furniture, just like in the photos they had been looking at. The children quickly realized that a room like this doesn’t exist in our school so they decided to create their own room. Small groups of children once again explored many areas of the school, they were looking for a “big big space” (M). The biggest space they found was the gym, however, X told everyone that they would need a "million millions stickers" (X) to cover the gym and so the class looked at alternative spaces. Eventually the children came up with a top three; the business office, the Raymond building lobby or the ELC atelier. In order to find out which was the biggest of the three, small groups set about measuring the different spaces. The Raymond building lobby was the largest space and so the children all agreed we should use that space.
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Creating Our Obliteration Room The children had decided to include white furniture in the room and so they painted an old shelf and a stool from the classroom. They thought it was very funny to be allowed to paint a stool but it was hard work painting the shelf, “There’s too much brown!” (Mi).
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Creating Our Obliteration Room After choosing a space and painting the furniture the class were finally ready to build their Obliteration Room. The Kindergarteners needed lots of help from other people in school, especially the facilities and maintenance department. After lots of hard work the room and an exhibition showing our experiments was finally ready for visitors.
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Opening the Obliteration Room The Kindergarten children were excited to finally open our Obliteration Room. They first invited parents to add stickers to the walls, before opening the room to whole NIS community. Our Obliteration Room stayed open for 3 weeks. The Children visited many times and were interested to see the different ways people had chosen to use the stickers.
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Final Reflections... After the Obliteration Room had closed the children were asked to reflect on the project. Several children met with the atelierista and were asked to describe three things they enjoyed about the project, two things they learned during the project and to think of one thing they would change if they created another Obliteration Room. 43
We enjoyed...
"When I paint the stool because it was covered with white paint, it looked like it's covered with cloud or snow" (R)
"Ba oon painting, it's so funny!" (Y)
"I liked it when I saw the long paper in the commons with the dabbers" (D)
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We learned...
"To think about dots in my mind." (M)
"I learned how to be with my friends, working together and listening and talking." (J) "Painting the balloon was difficult." (Mi) 45
If we made another Obliteration Room... "Lots of paint and brush and other painting things." (X) "White with black dots." (R) "I would change the room so the stickers could be white and the paper would be blue. The stickers would be white so people can colour them different colours." (J)
"More people and more stickers" (M)
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Dots Continued... Although the Dots project finished in late October, the influence of the dots could be seen throughout the rest of the school year, particularly in artwork created by the children. The dots were once again a focus at the beginning of the Digital Landscapes project in January. This new project began by using projectors to recreate the Obliteration Room and to explore some of the ideas the children talked about during their reflections.
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Thank You We would like to thank all of the people involved in the Dots project. First and foremost we must thank the children for sharing their ideas, wonderings and artistic experiences. Also the parents for making connections with school and sharing in the project. Kindergarten teachers and assistants: Desmond Gomez, Ginger Puffer, Yoko Watanabe and Yoko Kamikokuryo Preschool teachers and assistants: Marcela Hester, Chelsea Wilson Sword, Marimo Yagi and Chiaki Nomura ELC Coordinator and Atelierista: Jennie Mossman Finally, thank you to Satoko Okuno and Erik OlsonKikuchi for helping to create this book. 49