Thanksgiving Dot Pictures

We have been reading my large selection of Thanksgiving books from my classroom library. On of ER's favorites is One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessy. Its cheerful rhyming text incorporates counting and has the Pilgrim boys and girls working with the Wampanoag children. It has a playful tone doesn't go too far into the hardships or history, but I don't know how much I want to talk about that with ER yet anyway. It's a cute story for preschoolers and introduces them to a very sanitized concept of pilgrims and Native Americans. Afterward, I wanted a quick and easy art experience for ER that would build on general Thanksgiving concepts. These these free printables from DLTK were perfect. They were also a good excuse to finally give ER the Do A Dot Art Markers I got back in September. Yes, it's a little bit of a "lazy" art project as far as prep goes. Brad's been working seven days a week for ten hours or more building laser system for a university in Kentucky at the office. I've been needing a few breaks during the day here and there.
I'd forgotten how great they are for a quick project when you need to keep little hands busy. I can't even begin to tell you what a huge improvement this is over when ER used to use dot painters at her playgroup when she was two! She colored them in the next day and has been asking for them each time we do art ever since. Yes it's important to drag out the watercolors, the paints and brushes, but man it's also nice to do this relatively mess free paint too! They're definitely something I'm thankful for!