Dot Day (Ish Week) Lots of Dots & Many Connections!

One of my favorite weeks of the school year is the week we celebrate International Dot Day! It turns into a whole week of connections and discussing ways to make our mark. It always seems funny to call it "Dot Day Week" so this year I heard it being called "Ish Week" which I LOVED!  This celebration is centered around the book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. There are many good lessons in this book including being brave, encouraging others, and making your mark, whatever your mark may be!

Before school even starts, connections are being made. Shannon Miller & Matthew Winner, two librarians and Dot Day Ambassadors, created a Google doc to manage all of the connections. Matthew has several great blog posts about Dot Day and lesson ideas! When it was all said and done, there were over 60 pages of schedules and requests for connections! We always try to connect every class that visits the library during this week, and this year we even brought in extra classes! At Curtis, connecting with people outside the walls of our school is a normal part of our year, so students begin in kindergarten learning how to interact with others through Skype and Google Hangouts. It is always fun to watch the expression on the kinders faces the first time they connect!

This year, we connected with students in Flower Mound, Texas, Illinois, Vermont , Georgia, Connecticut, Washington, Iowa, Missouri, Frisco, Texas, Wisconsin, Massachusettes, Friendswood, Texas, Austin, Texas, Maine & Maryland! We even connected with some states twice, with different schools! 

Usually, there would only be a few pictures on the blog, but this year I just couldn't narrow them down, so an Animoto presentation was created to show the great week we had!! Enjoy!

International Dot Day 2014- Planning

Many of my educator friends have gone back to school, and alas, here I sit. Our school has undergone  some renovations this summer and the building is not quite ready. A positive to this is it is giving me time to get a head start on planning. 

One of my most favorite celebrations in the library happens very early in the school year.  It is International Dot Day on September 15thish. The "ish" because you can celebrate it at anytime around that day. The celebration centers around the book, THE DOT by Peter Reynolds and shares the idea that we should  be brave and make our mark! Thanks to my friends, Matthew Winner (The Busy Librarian) and Shannon Miller (The Library Voice) I have had the opportunity to connect my students before and can't wait for this year! 

Our students have celebrated Dot Day for the past couple of years and look forward to the opportunity to create & connect with others. You can read about how we celebrated Dot Day 2013, which always ends up being a week long celebration. We have colored dots, Skyped, shared our ideas of how we could make our mark, used technology to create & share dots, and much more! It is always a crazy, busy week but one that sets the tone for the whole year. A year that is full of creating, collaborating, and connecting!

There are great ideas for ways to celebrate on the International Dot Day website and on Pinterest, of course! But truly, no Dot Day is complete with out connections. This is a wonderful opportunity to connect your students with other students around the country and possibly the world. Matthew Winner has a Skype in the Classroom International Dot Day lesson that will help you get connected. There is also a Dot Day Google Doc to help you make connections with other educators. Many teachers and librarians have already listed their information on the Google doc, so be sure to add yours! You might not know your schedule yet, but you can always add that later!

So go ahead! What are you waiting for? Go make your mark and get your students connected this school year!

Day 2 of Dot Day!

Today was one of my favorite Skype days so far! As we continue our celebration of International Dot Day and making our mark, I experienced it all through new eyes and it was AMAZING!

We started the day with Mrs. Palmatier's 3rd graders connecting with Mrs. Uribe's 4th graders in Austin, TX. Our students shared how they incorporated Dot Day into their science lesson on states of matter and shared some of their 3D ColarMix Dot Day designs. Mrs. Uribe's class shared their inspirational dot signs, which were well thought out and very creative!

 

 

 

 

 

Then Mrs. Zell's & Mrs. Massingill's classes came in for their library time. We enjoyed the Interactive Big Book version of The Dot by Fablevision Learning.  The students did a great job of sequencing the events in the book on the big screen!

 

 

 

The best part of the day, though, was seeing these kiddos connect with other students. We "practiced" with a couple of students in Minnesota, who shared the dots they made, and then our students proudly showed their projects.

 

 

 

 

The students came back to the library for their "real" Skype visit with Mrs. Sikes class in Georgia. Our students couldn't wait to show their projects again!

 

 

Rachel, one of Mrs. Massingill's students said, "Thank you for connecting us! It was so much fun!" She wanted to know if they could do it again! Best day ever! ;)

 

As these two classes were leaving, Hatcher's Heroes were marching in to share their Dot Day experiences with a first grade class in New Jersey. Mrs. Nickerson's sweet first graders shared pictures of dots they found in nature, while our students shared pictures they drew of dots they found in their classroom. It was interesting to witness our students noticing there were no boys (it is an all girl school :) ) and to notice the uniforms the girls wear. We talked about what was similar and what was different about our schools.

From the DotClub.org website: The Dot is the story of a caring teacher who dares a doubting student to trust in her own abilities by being brave enough to “make her mark”. What begins with a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage, igniting a journey of self-discovery and sharing, which has gone on to inspire countless children and adults around the globe.


Today, I watched children grow in confidence. I saw students so very excited to connect with others, both similar to them and different from them. I saw bravery, as students who don't normally speak out, had the courage to connect with other students, all centered around a book, THE DOT by Peter H. Reynolds. What a wonderful day it was! And to think, there is MORE! It is just Tuesday! :)

 

 

 

 

 

International Dot Day Celebration - Day 1

The fun began bright and early in the library today, as I hung the polka dot banners and blew up polka dot balloons!

Notice the banners and balloons! :)

Here was our first day:

We connected with students in Pennsylvania and shared our Dot Day Padlet.

We read THE DOT and helped our friends put their "Make Your Mark" statement on Padlet.

 

 

Some of our kinders came in and loved having THE DOT read to them from TumbleBooks.

 

 

And then we bravely went where no other Curtis Kinder class had gone before... we SKYPED during the FIRST WEEKS of school with some wonderful 5th graders from a nearby district.  They were kind enough to read THE DOT to our students, who loved every minute of it! We then went to our tables and decorated our own dots, to make our mark!

 

It was a dot-filled, wonderful day!!

I can't wait to see what Day 2 brings! :)

 

 

International Dot Day Celebration

We are getting excited about the connections we will make this week for International Dot Day! We will read the book, THE DOT by Peter H. Reynolds and then Curtis ES students will connect with students in Texas, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, Wisconsin AND (thanks to Matthew Winner) we get to Skype with Ame Dyckman, author of BOY+BOT and soon to be released, TEA PARTY RULES! It is going to be a GREAT week!

Check back throughout the week to see pictures & read all about the fun!