We are having so much fun learning about Australia this month.
One of our favourite ways to learn about a culture is to explore multicultural craft traditions. For an Australia craft, we decided to try our hand at Aboriginal Dot Painting.
The Australian Aborigine culture is mystical and fascinating. While preparing materials for our Australia unit study, I loved learning how the tradition of Australian crafts tied into the Aboriginal concept of “Dreamtime,” which would be a wonderful philosophy or theology study for an older child.
Aboriginal Dot Paintings are created by making several small dots of paint to create a cohesive whole — either depicting an image or a pattern. This relates to the Aborigine beliefs of order and union. Interestingly, the purpose of the dots is to obscure and keep secret parts of the Dreamtime stories that these artworks often depict.
This is a great conversation starter with kids — how often we cannot fully understand the appearance of anything without knowing the story behind it, and how artwork can represent something more meaningful than it seems.
Materials we used for our Aboriginal-inspired Dot Painting:
- a simple kangaroo outline from this colouring pages resource (we printed ours on white cardstock)
- tempera paints
- paint tray
- q-tips
We stayed with the Aborigine tradition of only using red, yellow, brown, and white paints, though some modern dot paintings are including cooler colours, as well.
With an older child, it would be really cool to explore mixing your own acrylic paints and attempting the dot painting on a canvas. For a younger child, you could try tracing a design or outline onto a canvas for them to give them a similar experience.
Show your child how to dip the q-tips into the paint and make a dotting pattern on their design, and then leave them to it! You can encourage older children to attempt patterns within their overall designs, and I think reading or listening to an Aborigine story or music would be a great way to deepen the experience of this Australian craft.
This is also a great fine motor craft, allowing children to practice precision and develop finger and arm strength in the dotting movement.
What do you think? I would love to hear your suggestions for other Australia crafts!
Be sure to check out our other crafts and provocations for more kids craft ideas, and pin this one for later!
Sarah says
May 12, 2015 at 9:24 amI’m going to have to try this with my littles this summer! They will love it. 🙂 Thanks for linking up with Tuesday Talk! 🙂 I’m one of the co-hosts and I’m having a book giveaway this week – come check it out!
Sarah (www.sarahefrazer.com)
Jennifer Tammy says
June 12, 2015 at 9:37 pmThanks – will do!
Morgan says
May 13, 2015 at 1:32 pmI Love this idea! And I love Australian aboriginal art, I fell in love with it while traveling there a few years ago – great idea!
Jennifer Tammy says
June 12, 2015 at 9:36 pmThank you, Morgan – I loved the final product 🙂
Mom on the Move says
May 23, 2015 at 10:46 amThanks for linking up! Fun idea! I’m featuring you today on Share it Saturday! Come check it out and link up so more great ideas!
Jennifer Tammy says
May 28, 2015 at 6:05 amThank you so much for the feature – my daughter loves it when “her activities” are enjoyed by others 🙂
kreativekidoosdaycare says
July 12, 2019 at 7:55 amGratefulness for bestowing this interesting blog for art and craft activities for kids. This is great for learners of all ages. The arts and crafts activities will keep children learn fun and engage. Thanks for the motivation.
kreativekidoosdaycare says
August 7, 2019 at 8:22 amThanks for sharing this interesting blog with us. I love dot-painting. I also want to try to make this with preschoolers. These activities will help to grow the skill development of kids.
kreativekidoosdaycare says
August 17, 2019 at 11:31 ami am a pre.school teacher & I also teach my pre scholar this type of activities.i really appreciate you for share this blog & it will help children to grow their mind by doing such creative activities
Brandless Artist says
September 25, 2019 at 11:36 amThis is such a cute idea! I never tried it personally but seems to be a clever way to make kids enjoy creative activities. 🙂