It’s almost September 15th-ish, which means that Dot Day is quickly approaching! For those of you who have not encountered Dot Day before, it is an international event inspired by the Peter Reynolds book, The Dot. It’s all about celebrating creativity and “making your mark”! In last year’s post about Dot Day, I shared a few “new to me” Dot Day ideas for the celebration. This year, Breakout Edu has announced a brand new breakout adventure for elementary and middle school students based on The Dot. Students must solve the clues to set creativity and inspiration free. I recommend doing the breakout activity and then giving your students the opportunity to unleash their own inner artists as a follow-up!
International Dot Day is just a week away (9/15/14!) and I wanted to share with you this great project I saw posted by Louise Morgan last year. It is a collection of Dot Day projects from all over the world presented in Scratch. (If you are unfamiliar with Scratch, the free programming site from M.I.T., click here for more info. Also, Scratch Jr. is now available for free as an iPad app.) I love the way this project integrates programming with showcasing the creativity from students in many different states and countries!
Here is this year’s post that I wrote about the upcoming International Dot Day. There are lots of ways to get involved! Join us for this celebration of creativity and uniqueness of children around the globe!
Yesterday’s post was about making mistakes. A lot of our students are afraid to try anything because they think they will do it “wrong.” But there are lots of activities that don’t have a right or wrong way to do them. Sometimes creativity and having fun are important parts of learning, too.
If you are looking for an easy, engaging way to get this message across to your students, try participating in International Dot Day on September 15th, 2014. Read the fabulous book, The Dot, by Peter Reynolds. Try one of the fun suggested classroom activities in the Educator’s Handbook. Connect with someone using Skype in the Classroom. Or try the augmented reality app, ColAR, with the free Dot Day sheet. Check out this Pinterest board or this one. And don’t forget to check out the Celebri-dots here!
International Dot Day is on September 15th. You can see my original post about it here. Recently, I found some more resources on Lori’s Latest Links: International Dot Day and More Dot Day Ideas. There are some videos with examples of how different schools have celebrated Dot Day, and some links to different lesson plan ideas. Here is a Pinterest site of Dot Day ideas. And here are some wonderful ways to integrate art. Mark International Dot Day on your calendars now, and make it a day of creativity in your classroom!