Golden Hills Elementary

I have mentioned in the past how much I love the fact that being a published author/illustrator opens up doors for me to work with kids in classrooms. Kids are wonderful teachers and almost every time I go into a class they teach me something.

I went to Golden Hills Elementary in El Dorado Hills this week and had one of those surprising moments I love so much. 

I brought in a drawing I did of the Steelhead Trout for the kids to color with dots (per request of their teacher.) The steelhead trout in California are in trouble and these kids had the opportunity to raise them in the classroom to release them into the wild. Their teacher is a passionate and driven woman and those kids are lucky to have a teacher so inspired helping nature.

But, that wasn't my surprise.

It was what the kids did with those drawings that inspired me. They used markers to stipple their dots. The colors and the detail were beautiful. And there was no mess to clean up afterwards. It offers me a solution for kids that are in classrooms that can't have paint. The hardest thing for the kids to do is to give distance between or white space around their dots. But, once I ask them to be open to the technique they take off!

If you want to try dot painting (using acrylics and dipping the handle of the paint brush to make the dots,) or try it with markers, download a couple of my templates from my book at http://www.racheldillon.com/#goto=book-news. It is really fun!