International Dot Day

To keep up our momentum from the Global Cardboard Challenge, we participated in International Dot Day. If you have never read The Dot by Peter Reynolds, you have been missing out.  It is a beautiful story about a young girl named Vashti and her journey of self-acceptance and expression through art and creativity.  The famous line, "Just make a mark and see where it takes you" has become a cultural phenonmon in certain circles for the encouragement in our potential it provides.  Since its release, people all over the world have started celebrated International Dot Day to celebrate our creativity, courage, and collaboration.

To start, I read the story to students, while thinking aloud throughout the story, highlighting certain events, scenes, vocabulary, and the artists use of colors to visually speak with the audience. Afterwards, we talked about how Vashti felt throughout the story and how she changed the more she tried new dot paintings.  We discussed how important her teacher was in encouraging her and if they had anyone in their lives that encouraged them the same way.  

I then modeled for them the use of ABCYA's Paint Go to create our own dot paintings. Everyone was so excited about trying their own so we go to it! They loved showing off their own personalities through their dot paintings.  Of course, I printed off their paintings for them to take home as well. It's not every day they get to physically take something home from technology class!  Next year, I would really like to collaborate with some other classes through my connections I have made with media specialists around the world to build a lesson together...maybe show off their dot paintings through a Skype session or a Padlet of ideas on how we can make our mark on the world. It's always wonderful when we can connect with outside classrooms in order to make learning more social and expose our students to other views around the world.

Here are some other ideas about incorporating Dot Day into your classroom:

1. Encourage your students to wear clothing with dots.
2. Make a card decorated with only dots that could be sent to someone in the community thanking them for something.
3. Use the Chatterpix iPad app to create talking dots with their dot paintings.
4. Write a note in braille using You've Got Braille.
5. Partner with another classroom (inside or outside of your building) to create something awesome!
6. Use Goose Chase to create a scavenger hunt where students have to find dot-related things.
7. Write a story to go along with your dot painting! A Day in the Life of a Dot...
8. Sing the Dot Day Song from Emily Arrow
9. Scientific Inquiry with dot coffee filters and chromatography 
10. Any other idea that you come up with!  Pinterest has some great ideas and resources if you search for Dot Day Activities.

The sky is the limit with your imagination! I would love to hear how you celebrate International Dot Day.