International Dot Day

K-3rd grade students all worked on "dots" at the beginning of the school year and this year I wanted to make sure we did something fun as close to International Dot Day as possible. During that class period, students could choose to work on individual projects, to work collaboratively on dot paintings, or to make their own dot with a dot template. 

I made up my own "anti-coloring" page with "International Dot Day 2014"  at the top and a big blank circle at the bottom. This was SO popular. Almost every student wanted to make a dot using this template. I also read The Dot at my local library and used the same template.

*If you've never heard of Anti Coloring Books, they're activity books with a bit of information, that ask the kids to think and be creative instead of just filling in someone else's drawing.

Kindergarten Initial Dots

This year I decided to do some more structured lessons to start off the year with Kindergarten. I was trying to cover lots of basic skills and now we've started getting into more choice. For Kindergarten's first project, they traced a circle (a dot for International Dot Day), drew their first initial, traced with markers, learned about and created lines and patterns, practiced scissor skills, and practiced using a glue stick. This project gave me a lot of information about my students' beginning of the year abilities so I can tailor instruction and see what we need to work on the most.

 Day 1- Name on papers, trace circles, write first initial, trace initial, start talking about lines

Day 2- Review and practice different kind of lines, draw lines around initial with crayon, cut out circle, glue to square of construction paper, add designs to construction paper if time allows and student chooses.

 

Dot Day 2014: Staff Participation

Last year as part of our Dot Day celebration, I asked other staff members at my primary school to make "Celebridots". I figured they are like the celebrities to the students so it made sense! The main reason I wanted to convince them to make art is that I think it's GREAT for students to see other adults besides the art teacher doing creative things. This year in my email request I included a little speech about not being allowed to say they're "not creative" because it gives students permission to make the same excuse. I love seeing the Celebridots, especially because it lets me learn something more about my coworkers than I can learn from the 5 second interaction when they pick up or drop off their classes. Check out some of the dots!

Theme: Junk Drawer. I love it!

 Can you guess which was made by our new music teacher? :)

This teacher knew we are learning about India so she made a mandala design in her dot. 

Appropriate for a school in Kansas...

And this textured monogram was the favorite of students! I let several classes vote on a favorite and that teacher will get a prize of some sort. I haven't decided what it will be yet. Congratulations, Mrs.Plemons!

A new addition to this year's Dot Day celebration was a spirit day. Yesterday students and staff were invited to wear dot clothing to celebrate. After school I convinced some of the staff members to show up for a picture. Check out all the awesome dots! I'm so proud of the participation we had this year and know we can keep growing Dot Day. I'll also be drawing a name of a staff member who participated in the spirit day for a prize and I'm going to "cook up" a little thank you for those that made a dot.

Bingo Marker Art

I stopped at a Dollar Tree last week and on a whim, threw a bingo marker in my already too full basket, thinking it might work well for some Dot Day artwork with my kids. It was a big hit! My youngest (15 months old) had fun playing with it until almost 4 year old saw it and wanted a turn. 

"Look, mommy, it's prickly!" (It does make super cool splatters)

"I'm drawing flowers. Now I'll draw a stem."

"Should I make a road?"

I gave him another piece of paper since he had pretty much filled the first.

"I'll make a fence. I need boards to hold it up. Now I'll make boards that go up and down."

"Now I'll make more flowers."

"Should I make a truck? A big truck. I need lots of wheels for the heavy load."

This age is so fun! I love the narration as he works. The next time I can swing by a Dollar Tree, I'll be checking for bingo markers in other colors!

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! :)

#DotDay Murals

We had a lot of fun celebrating International Dot Day! After the 1st-3rd grade students finished their contributions to our collaborative mobile, they helped work on one of 3 murals: a play on our school logo, an imaginary solar system, and an underwater scene.

 We looked at a famous painting made of dots- Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and covered the first mural with pointilist dots. We did cheat and paint the background first given the age of the students.

I laminated the strips so it doesn't photograph well.

The other murals were a combination of paint, stamping, drawing, and collage.

Look at all those planets (dots!)

Helping to tape the pieces together was a popular job.

Painted background with cardboard tube stamped bubbles (more dots!) The little bitty mermaid was one of my favorite details. The underwater mural was the smallest and the only one made on just one big piece of paper. It was the last afternoon and the first two were finished so we started another that could be completed that day.

The students really enjoyed "connecting the dots" and working together on these murals. The teachers and visitors to our school have enjoyed seeing them in the hallway almost as much as the students do.

#DotDay Mobile

For a collaborative International Dot Day project, every student in my primary school made a dot which was combined into a big mobile! Somehow we managed to fit almost 500 dots on the mobile, glued back to back with yarn in the middle.

Prior to our Dot Day celebrations, I made the structure of the mobile. It's a bit hard to see with no dots on it, but the structure was made from 3 wire hangers stuck together to form 6 points. I hung a piece of yarn on each corner, one in the middle, and one half way between each corner and the middle for a total of 13 strands. Of course the yarn strands were arranged in color wheel order in each ring. That's how I roll.

I had precut squares of white drawing paper and the students started with that to make their dots. Some used the round-off-the-corner method, and others traced cups or other circular objects to start with. It was a good chance to review rotating the paper instead of turning the scissors when cutting round things. I was super impressed with this kitten dot, cut out by a Kindergartener with absolutely no assistance. A lot of older kids can't cut that well! I had to brag to his teacher about it. :)

When students finished their dots, they left them on a stool near the mobile so that I could find two similar sized dots to sandwich. Some of the early finishers enjoyed helping match up dots.

When the mobile was finished, I had to figure out where I was going to display the mobile! I was originally thinking that it could hang in the art room but it ended up being way too tall for that. If I had gotten this idea earlier, I would have used a hula hoop to increase the diameter and decrease the height. Luckily, our school librarian was happy to find a place to display the mobile in the library. She was also the first to complete her celebridot- inspired by Eric Carle's "The Very Grouchy Ladybug!"