One of my favorite days of the school year is Dot Day. My students love it, too. Today we will be making creative dots in class. I’ll post them next week.
In preparation for our Friday celebration, I shared Laura Purdie Salas’s Dot poem.
As a class, we brainstormed a list of things that were dots. I asked my students to write a rhyming couplet with one or two of the ideas we listed.
Writing a rhyming couplet seems easy, at first. I quickly discovered that rhyming doesn’t go together with making sense in kids’ writing. We had lots of a lots rhyming with dots. We even had cots and bots. We also had internal rhyme rather than end rhyme, slant rhyme, and some just plain nonsense.
One student said, “This is hard.”
I responded, “Yes, but isn’t it fun when it works?”
We persevered and created a poem everyone was happy with. I am sharing two poems from each of my ELA groups.
A Pixel on the Page
A pixel on the page is just the start
for what may become a famous work of art.Everything is made up of matter,
even the mad hatter.Dots are everywhere
as well as over there.A dot is the sun. A dot is the moon
disappearing around noon.The earth is a dot
in not just one spot.Want to make a rhyme,
running out of time?
Who you gonna call?
The majestic, dotty, narwhal.One dot, two dots,
three dots, four,
five dots, six dots,
seven dots,
let’s add some more.A dot is a dot
and there are quite a lot.All you need is a spot
to make a dot.I’m a dot, you’re a dot, everything’s a dot.
A dot can be super hot
spilled on the floor
dots,
dots,
dots
galore.
Dot to Dot
Put an egg in a pot to boil
water bubbles, bump and coil.
My fingerprint marks a dot
leaving my dirt in a swirling spot.
A period on the end of a line
On a piece of paper ready to sign.
Potatoes, tomatoes, grapes on the vine
A salad combined for us to dine.
A seed that will grow into a tree
pollinated by a tiny little bee.
A dot…
a dot is a lens on the tip of your eye
looking for clouds high in the sky.
A dot is spot we can see
like that chocolate chip in my cookie.
[…] Simon used this poem as a starting point for some awesome activities with her students, which she shared on her Reflections on the Teche blog. She is amazing, and the writing she leads her students to is always fun to […]
I love this, Margaret. It’s not always easy to combine different styles/tones of writing into one poem, but these come off marvelously! And they are great examples of how combining dots, collaborating, calls forth something larger and more meaningful. Funny, I see several things here (pixels and irises, for instances), that I tried and failed to work into my own poem. Thanks so much for sharing my poem with your awesome poets!
What fun and lovely dot art images! Laura’s poem is spec-tacular, and your student’s poems are funny, intriguing, and move you right through, thanks. I look forward to viewing the dot creations next week!
Fun! I’d like to know how that dotty narwhal found his way into the first poem! “Water bubbles, bump and coil” in the second poem reminds me of the three witches in MacBeth. 🙂 And any poem that ends with chocolate chip cookies is AOK by me!
One of my kiddos is nutso about narwhals. Today she led a movement for half the class to make narwhal dots.
What a fun poem by Laura! Great inspiration for your own. Dot Day reminds me of a quote on the BRAG wall where Adrienne’s penguin art is displayed (my post this week); ‘A line is a dot that went for a walk.’ (Paul Klee)
I love that it finally ended up in a chocolate chip cookie dot! So fun that you used Laura’s poem for inspiration.
“Yes, but isn’t it fun when it works?” might be my favorite line in your post!
I love the poems. So MUCH thinking for something so tiny. What learning and growth from this activity. Congratulations to all.
Dots galore indeed! Sounds like a great dot day in your classroom, Margaret.
I also loved that the poem ended on chocolate chip cookies. How many dots can dance on the tip of a narwhal’s horn? Sounds like you have such fun with Laura and Reynolds.
What fun you had with dots! Laura’s poem is a great way to start inspiration, but your kids took off and ran with it. I agree, writing good rhyming couplets is hard, but it sure is fun when it works!
[…] Simon used this poem as a starting point for some awesome activities with her students, which she shared on her Reflections on the Teche blog. She is amazing, and the writing she leads her students to is always fun to […]