Dot Day 2014

Are you celebrating International Dot Day? Dot Day celebrates creativity, courage, and collaboration and is inspired by Peter H. Reynolds' book, "The Dot". This has become a tradition at school and I'm excited that this year our new librarian joined in! She read The Dot to K-3rd grade and they did some "dot" activities in library. It's nice to collaborate!

 I wanted to share my Dot Day bulletin board since it has an overview of our activities with each grade. I'll be posting more details about those projects some day when I get around to it. :)
The background for the "Dot Day" sign was a circle painting made by some 1st-3rd grade students. The Vashti cutout was made for my YAM bulletin board a couple years ago and she's been hanging out in the art room ever since, occasionally making an appearance in the hallway.

We're learning about India this fall so I tied the 3rd grader's dots to rangoli. They turned out really cool and have been a popular project, of course any project that lets the students use glue and sand is a pretty sure thing.

2nd grade's mixed media dots were the most open this year.

1st grade dots were circles filled with patterns, and boy did some kids make it a lot harder than it needed to be! I should have encouraged the students to focus on making one big dot since many drew a ton and then got tired of working on it half way through.

 I decided before I start TAB-ing with Kindergarten, I want to cover a lot of basics. In this first project they practiced writing their names and initials, traced a can, learned about and drew lines, cut a round shape, and used a glue stick. Now they've practiced making different kinds of lines with a paintbrush, "dipped the tip", and explored color mixing. 

I was given a ton of used crayons so I picked out some that looked nice and used them to make a Dot Day decoration. I feel a little guilty using crayons with so much life to make a decoration, but I was given about 10 gallons of crayons so I hope these won't be missed.

I can't wait to read about other teacher's Dot Day activities. I already read one hilarious account this evening that left me literally laughing out loud (LLOL?) and made me want to try out the project. Thanks for the laugh, Cassie Stephens! See her post here: http://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/2014/09/in-art-room-string-stitched-dot-for-dot.html

If you don't own The Dot, get your copy now! You don't even have to use my affiliate link, I just figured it might be a convenience for someone! I got the Creatrilogy for my birthday a few years ago and I treasure it. Thanks, Mom! :)