Kindergarten and First Grade Celebrate Dot Day

I'm so excited that I finally get to post about our International Dot Day celebrations. I was waiting on some permission slips so that I could include pictures with this post.

Due to days off, not all Kindergarten and First Grade students got to participate in our Dot Day celebrations.  I have something else special planned for them in the future.

Every year on or around September 15th educators around the world are invited to take time and celebrate their students' creativity.  This event started because of the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.  Click here for a summary of the book.

We started off by listening to The Dot on TumbleBooks, which is available through the St. Mary's County Public Library site (under the Kids tab).  We discussed how this book teaches us a great life lesson, trying your best even when you think you can't and making your mark on the world

In Kindergarten, we talked about how their name is an important part of how they make their mark on the world.  Each student got a half sheet of paper with the first letter of their first name written on it.  Then they had to make that letter their own by covering it with dots!  The kids had a great time and showed a lot of creativity.  As they got done, I broke the students into small groups and allowed them to use an iPad app, Drawing Pad, to as a group make dots.

  

In First Grade, I broke the class into two groups.  One group stayed at the tables and designed their own dots.  It was interesting to see the creativity and thoughtfulness behind their creations.  

   

   

The other First Grade group came to the other end of the Media Center with me and we worked with the iPod Touches and the iPads.  I broke this group into two smaller groups, so that they could have time working on both the iPod Touch and the iPads.  We used the same app, Drawing Pad on the iPad's.  Some of the kids were so creative!  

On the iPod Touches, we used an app called Press Here.  This app is based on the book Press Here by Herve Tullet.  The book and the app are full of dots.  The kids had a lot of fun using this app too.  After about 12 minutes we switched big groups and did it all again.

I'm looking forward to expanding our celebration to include more grade levels next year.  Thanks to the parents who allowed me to use the photos.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda