International Dot Day, a global celebration of creativity, courage and collaboration, began when teacher Terry Shay introduced his classroom to Peter H. Reynolds' book The Dot on September 15, 2009. We celebrated it in the library with a Kindergarten class in the morning and a Second Grade in the afternoon. We began in each class by watching the 6 minute movie of Reynolds' book. Then I read a great picture book called Lots of Dots to the younger class and we looked for dots in the classroom. We found them in the acoustical tile, in the shape of the clock, and all kinds of round figures in signs and objects. The kindergartners completed a 1-10 dot-to-dot frog and drew some flies for him to snack on. They ended by making their own unique designs to take home. The Second Graders examined the dots of a children's magazine printed entirely in Braille and the painting of French pointillist Georges Seurat. They also made some frog pictures but connecting the dots, 1-43. Our last activity for the older class was also to make their mark with original images. I loved the wide variety of designs they came up with. All in all, a celebration of imagination
