International Dot Day is one of my favorite days of the year. For years, I’ve celebrated with my students. This year I tried out a new activity for Dot Day, a Zeno Zine. We started by reading The Dot and playing the Emily Arrow Dot Day Song. Then each student decorated a dot on white art paper using markers. Rainbow dots seemed to be the choice of the day.
After drawing a dot, I asked my students to collect words and phrases about their artwork to use in a zeno poem. We wrote a zeno together using ideas from the book. Then they wrote their own zeno about their own dot. We folded their art work into a zine and copied their poems into their zine.
Zeno form: syllable count 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1 (Each one syllable line rhymes. )
Our Group Dot Zeno
I can’t draw a straight line, can you?
May I please see
you draw
dot?
I don’t think so
maybe
not
I bet you can
draw a
lot!
After the rainstorm has happened
Colors appear
rainbow
light
a beautiful
hopeful
sight
flower petals
amazing
brightby Breighlynn
I draw and write alongside my students, so I made three zeno zines throughout the day. My student Madison suggested that I post this one because, as she said, “The solar system is full of dots!”
Solar System Dot Zeno Zine
Gravitational central sun
spiral orbit
spinning
round
Solar system
planets
bound
Constant spinning
without
sound.Margaret Simon, (c) 2018
Bayou Song Interview on KRVS:
If you are interested in hearing an interview with me on our local public radio station, click this link and go to “Interview.”
Love the dot zeno zines (and how much fun is that to say!?!) and can’t wait to listen to your interview. Sadly, I’ll have to wait for a serene moment for that, but I have bookmarked it and know I’ll enjoy it then.
Thanks, Molly. It was such a fun activity. I understand trying to carve out the quiet moments.
Margaret, you and your students were busy for Dot Day. I enjoyed reading the zine poetry. I will have to come back another time to listen to your interview. On another note, Karter is going to send me his work for the summer gallery.
[…] what? The line was eight syllables long, perfect for the first line of a zeno. (See more about zenos here.) I asked him, “What did you see in the garden?” He remembered a praying mantis hiding […]
[…] to create a “Zeno-Zine.” You can see a previous posts about making Zeno-Zines for Dot Day and in Summer Poetry […]