International Dot Day

Today, we celebrated International Dot Day!  I first heard about this because of Pinterest but as someone who loves polka dots I wanted to find ways to incorporate it into our learning.  We began last Friday when we revisited using water colors with a dot.  They have been at our easel during centers but I noticed that they weren't being taken care of so we had another guided discovery lesson on the use of them as we water colored our dot.  

I sent a note home to families about our celebration and encouraged children to wear polka dots.  About half of the class did, boys included!  We listened to The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and then I had set up a scavenger hunt for us to review school procedures in common areas like the cafeteria, office, and library.  Our last clue took us back to the classroom with a canvas painting to work on during centers.

The canvas will serve multiple purposes because my school holds an annual Arts Festival each spring where classroom artwork is bid on by families.  This money is the used to purchase supplies that we have access to school wide.  Our class is getting an early start!  As we painted today, I had already used black paint to make the circles and we talked about primary colors as we painted.  The canvas will be finished as we use secondary colors where circles join.

We also had dots for snacks including cheese, grapes, cheese balls, cherry spurs, and dots.  We listened to The Dot as we ate snack.  We also listened to Ten Black Dots and children were given one colored dot and wrote about the picture they made with the dot.

I sent home a note with gum balls so children could share their adventures throughout the day with their families.  What are some adventures you had with your class today?