For those of you who may not know, a book called The Dot has commanded my mid-September reading for two years now.
The Dot follows Vashti, an art student who believes she has no art talent. “Make your mark and see where it takes you,” encouraged her teacher. Vashti jabs her blank paper with a marker, and proclaims it finished. “Now, sign it!” says her art teacher. Later on, Vashti returns to the art classroom to see her teacher has framed her artwork and mounted it on the wall. Vashti realizes she can do better than that dot, and continues throughout the story to make dots of all shapes and sizes.
Thanks to the wonderful teachers and librarians in my PLN on Twitter, I was alerted to the fact that “International Dot Day” happens on or around September 15th. We had the awesome opportunity to share some of our artwork at the Waukesha Public Library. We created our dots with watercolors, and sent them off to the library for display. I plan on getting to the library soon to take some pictures. The other awesome part of Dot Day (Week) was that we spent the week of the 16th connecting with different classrooms.
Someone on Twitter created a Google Doc where teachers/librarians were able to add in their classroom contact information and set appointment slots for others to fill in their information. My 6th graders managed to connect with three schools and four different classrooms.
What it looked like on our end:
What we looked like on their end:
[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=209987508217185093213.0004dfd49bed63e503744&hl=en&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=36.842473,-93.014553&spn=12.689951,9.580435&output=embed&w=425&h=350]
I even started a custom Google Map so we can keep track of all the locations with which we connect this year. I’m looking forward to adding even more pins on the map during the Global Read Aloud coming up! Hopefully this is one way to help my students understand that they are not alone in the world–there are many more kids out there and they all can make a difference!
Until next time, keep a song in your heart!
