Location: indoor or outdoor

Materials: paint or dot paints, paper, straws or q tips, an example of a Georges Seurat painting (optional)

This project is inspired by the paintings of Georges Seurat, and borrows his pointillism technique.

Introduce your kids to Seurat by reading Sunday with Seurat (available from the library or your favorite bookstore). Have them look at one of his paintings from far away and from up close. Do they notice the tiny dots of color when they are looking up close?

Invite your children to make their own painting using pointillism. You can model how to dip a q-tip or straw into paint and dab it on the paper. This might be challenging for some kids, because the desire to use the q-tip like a paint brush might be overwhelming. As much as possible, remind them to dab the paint.

This also works with dot paints instead.

Possible extensions:

• Hang everyone's paintings like an art gallery to show off for parents, include famous art work to show point of inspiration
• See Pointillism Stickers