I have written about Dot Day more than once. You can find ideas here/here/here/here/here/here/ and here. I have had the chance to collaborate with some amazing art teachers and I love that the teachers usually play along!
This year is a little different.. as I have moved to middle school. I have LOVED every minute of it, and I love the teachers, but I knew that I was going to need to changed up Dot Day just a little bit. I am unsure how much participation will happen.. but I am going to try! I usually share after Dot Day what we have done, but I wanted to share my ideas early this year for some middle school librarians that might be on the fence.
This blog is a little longer than most, but there are lots of pics and links of ideas that you can easily do as well! That is the great thing about any event.. take what you can do and adapt!
Dot Day is based on the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds and talks about the importance of making your mark and seeing where it takes you. The book was published on September 15th. In 2009 Terry Shay introduced The Dot to his class, and Dot Day was born. Every year on September 15th ish people all over the world celebrate Dot Day. You can find more information on the Dot Club website.
The past few years I have done activities during the day and in the evening. This year I am doing a couple of activities in the morning on Thursday and Friday.
I sent my staff this email:
Hello Fabulous Friends!
I hope everyone had an AMAZING 3 day weekend!
Every year on September 15th ish people celebrate
The Dot. The Dot is a picture book that focuses on everyone making their
mark and seeing where it takes you. You can find more information here.
How can you participate?
-Monday September 10th 3:45pm-5:00pm I will have
materials in the library where you can make your own Dot Day headbands.. all
you need to bring is a headband.. I will have a few available.. see attached
picture)
-Friday September 14th- wear dots.. and tweet
about Dot Day (#dotday18)
-Take a group picture on Friday September 14th at
3:45pm in front of the Lamar sign wearing your dots!!
Tweet about Dot Day.. get your name in the drawing
Wear dots on Friday the 14th- get your name in
the drawing
Join in the group photo- get your name in the drawing
That is a total of 3 chances! What is up for
grabs.. 5 (yes.. 5!) $5 Sonic Gift Cards!
For Students
-they will also be invited to wear dots with their Lamar
uniform on Friday
-in the morning on the 13th and 14th
there will be hands on activities in the library
-throughout the week students will be invited to share how
they are going to make their mark by adding their story to a Flipgrid
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-I have a Flipgrid up for students to share how they are going to make their mark
-I had an awesome parent volunteer cut out dots for me so students could decorate them.
Monday
-I am working with the LIFE class and we are going to do Kandinsky style dots using construction paper.
-After school I have invited the staff to come make a Dot Day headband. I ordered this felt (now.. it is 4x4) and am asking teachers to provide their own headband.
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| headband I made last year. |
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| My current Facebook profile picture, love that I could add Dot Day to it! |
-During the morning I am going to have the library open from 7:30am-8:05am with materials to make Dot Day bookmarks. I got these bookmarks on Amazon and will have sharpies out. In the morning I am going to have Mrs. Gomez pass out 50 dots to students. That will be the ticket to get in the library. Although I would LOVE to have more students participate.. I have to think space. I will have materials available so if a student stops by and would like to make one.
Friday
-I am encouraging students to wear dots with their school clothes.
-Friday morning I will have materials set out to make pom pom pencil toppers during the 7:30am-8:05am session.
-I am super excited because 2 sections of AP Art will be joining me in the library to hear the Dot and possibly do a Dot activity. I LOVE the idea of Zentangle Dot that is done here with 6th graders but I also love this idea of giving students a quarter of a circle.
-I am encouraging staff to wear dots (I mean.. there is a possibility of them winning a Sonic card!)
-I plan to take a picture after school of staff wearing their dots.
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| I am in love with my letterboards! I plan to use this one as a photo prop throughout the week. |
Did you know that there is even a Breakout Edu game! I can't wait to check it out.
My awesome Digital Learning Coach Kara Noah is even putting a Twitter challenge out to the district about Dot Day!
There are SO many Dot Day resources and connections that can be made (check out Shannon Millers latest blog). Just like anything it can be as little or as big as you want to make it! I don't know how well Dot Day is going off this year in my new library, but I am excited to try. Even if only a handful participate.. that is still people making their marks.
What kind of mark are you going to make and where are you going to let it take you?
