Poetry Friday round-up with Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty.
Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.
This is a dual posting for Poetry Friday and Celebration Saturday because this week we celebrated Dot Day. What a great week we had!
On Tuesday, Sept. 15th, my students have come to expect Dot Day. It’s a tradition in my gifted classroom. And every year gets better. A friend of mine made me a Dot Day skirt, a felt poodle skirt full of dots.
I received a text from a former student with the greeting, “Happy International Dot Day!” Thanks to Peter Reynolds for writing The Dot and for establishing Dot Day, a day to celebrate creativity, resilience, and empathy. Did you know there’s a Dot Day song?
We shared our enthusiasm on Wednesday with Mrs. Rogers’ first grade class. Two students shared the reading of the book and everyone danced to the song. Then the first graders decorated coffee filters with markers. I brought a spray bottle, so each gifted student sprayed their group’s dots. We had so much fun. Their teacher, Mrs. Rogers, invited us back on Friday. Her kids had made thank you drawings and wanted to perform the song for us. They had been practicing. The smile never left my face.
My kids want to do another activity with them. One suggested Chalk-a-bration. More to come!
Back in our classroom, I started a document with this line, “A blank canvas stares at me.” I invited the students to add a line to our class Dot poem. Then I put it all together in this Animoto video. I think it will make you smile!
Reflections on the Teche 
I loved it! Especially the “more love” line!
What a great day! I bet there wasn’t one student who didn’t go home proud and smiling.
Your Dot Day celebration sounds wonderful. We read this to our student teachers on the first day of the semester to remind them to be open and to encourage their children to take risks.
Thanks for sharing your collaborative poem.
Just fabulous, Margaret. I smiled all the way through, too! Love the words along with those dots! My class used to love doing projects with our buddy class, so much to celebrate in that relationship!
Wow, you and your students truly celebrated the meaning of Dot Day. You sure had a busy creative week.
I love hearing about the different way Dot Day is celebrated. So fun and creative!
Sounds like it was a wonderful way to celebrate Dot Day! We celebrated it for the first time!!! Such fun!!!
Thank you! My son celebrated Dot Day at his school. I love the celebration of creativity. What a beautiful poem and beautiful art.
Ruth
I loved reading about how you celebrated Dot Day. This year was my first but now I have the date marked!! Love your aminoto! You are giving me ideas for next year.
One way I changed this year is to celebrate for more than one day. Because it fell on a Tuesday, my class made their dots on Tuesday, and we took it to first grade on Wednesday. I think it would be awesome to get the whole school involved, but I’m not sure I want to take that on.
Wonderful compilation of thoughts to create a #DotDay poem celebration. Margaret, your students and the first graders really made their mark! Congratulations.
Our 5th graders made coffee filter dots, too! They loved it. Your class dot poem and video are awesome! Such lucky students đŸ™‚
I want to be in your class (again!).
So fun! The line about more love than hatred is awesome.
What a wonderful celebration! So much to do with this profound little book.
Love the animoto poem!
Sometimes, Margaret, it’s hard for me to come visit, because I know I will end up wanting to have your job SO powerfully. : ) I discovered Dot Day in August and put it on my calendar, but when the 15th came we just weren’t ready to run with it. I’ll come back around, if not this year, then next year. And no, I didn’t know there was a song!
“Behold the dot I made bold!”
Do you know Peter Reynolds’ book “Ish?” He says that about Dot Day, it’s Sept. 15th-ish, so I think your kids would love it at any time of the year. Try the coffee filter dots. That’s an easy activity. Singing the song and learning the motions is so much fun. I can’t stop singing it.
[…] « Celebrating Dot Day! […]
It must be fun to be one of your students!
I love the back and forth between the two classes, and the collaboration with the poem (and video). Thanks for sharing the smiles, Margaret!
Isn’t it great having the different ages working together! So much fun, so much learning all around! Just as it should be. Now for plaid day.