I take Peter H. Reynold’s International Dot Day seriously, and want to ensure that my students have a chance to participate in the celebration and make their mark. Being creative, courageous, and collaborative are important skills to hone!   I typically celebrate for two weeks, giving my students a chance to enjoy reading The Dot again, and then I also share additional books that are dot-related.

The first week we started off with a scavenger hunt to find something round or something with dots on it.  I gave the kids two minutes to find something and bring it back to share, Then, I read The Dot and we discussed it’s meaning.  We got up and danced to Emily Arrow’s Dot Song video. Then we watched the wonderful KidLit TV video of Peter creating Dot Dreamers, and created our own. Some of my favorite Dot Day Dreamer drawings are below:

The second week we read Mixed: A Colorful Story by Arree Chung.  As with The Dot, this is a book with multiple layers of meaning, and we did have some great discussions about it. A link to my week 1 & 2 Dot Day lessons are here.

The second week, with my youngest students, we read Hervé Tullet’s Press Here and Let’s Play!  and I attempted to get the kids up and moving with their hands and bodies.  This works so much better in person, when I give them a primary color dot to hold on to, and ask them to move it – but we did our best on Zoom. The kids then drew pictures of how they would play with their yellow dot – a few playful examples are below!

Our annual Dot Day celebration and the art that my Dot Day Dreamers create is always so wonderful to see!