International Dot Day
Around September 15th, International Dot Day is celebrated yearly in Orchard School's library. This week-long event is based on a book titled, THE DOT by Peter H. Reynolds. It's a story of a caring teacher who encourages a doubting student to trust in her own abilities. Talking about taking risks and trying new things is such a fabulous way to begin a new school year! At Orchard School, we love to connect with classes around the world to share projects and stories for the entire week's celebration.
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International Dot Day (Month) - September 2023
For several years, International Dot Day has been an important start to the school year at Orchard School. All 400+ students heard Peter H. Reynold's books THE DOT, ISH and SKY COLOR. This year, I changed things up a bit by not creating a display of dots for the hall outside of the library. Instead, every student designed a dot that they turned into a wearable button!
Below are some examples of student button creation.
Below are some examples of student button creation.
There were dot-related centers available. Students enjoyed Stick Together, QuiverVision, BreakoutEDU, as well as games of Connect Four and Dominoes.
StickTogether
QuiverVision
BreakoutEDU
Dot Day Zoom Connections
International Dot Day (Month) - September 2022
International Dot Day continues to be an important start to the school year at Orchard School. All 400+ students heard Peter H. Reynold's books THE DOT, ISH and SKY COLOR, and decorated a dot to display on the wall outside of the library. This year, some teams of students created collaborative dots, choosing to work together on a united dot design. During the week containing September 15th, classes connected with others across the US. There even was a Flip connection with students at the International School of Phnom Penh in Cambodia! In addition to Google Meet/Zoom connections, students enjoyed dot activities by Stick Together, QuiverVision, BreakoutEDU, as well as games of Connect Four and Dominoes.
Here are examples of some collaborative dots.
Below are some images from some amazing Google Meet/Zoom visits for International Dot Day 2022. We connected with students in CA, CT, GA, LA, MA, MD, MO and TX! There even was a Flip connection with Cambodia!
BreakoutEDU, QuiverVision and StickTogether were popular indeed!
Here's how the hall outside of the library looked for International Dot Day 2022. (The StickTogether image isn't quite finished in the video and picture below.)
International Dot Day (Month) - September 2021
During the first week of our celebration of International Dot Day 2021, all 400+ students in our school heard Peter H. Reynold's THE DOT and decorated a dot creation to display on the wall outside of the library. In the following weeks, students chose from four stations in the library - Stick Together, QuiverVision, BreakoutEDU or Connect Four. Students rotated to a different station in the following weeks.
What fun using the Quiver app to make Dot Day creations bounce, spin, pop and move!
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Small groups of first through fifth grade students LOVED going into the hall outside of the library to work on the Stick Together project. They matched the letters on the poster with the matching colors their sticker sheet. There were almost 4000 dots on the poster! No one knew what the picture would end up to be until the very last day! |
BreakoutEDU had some fabulous FREE Dot Day puzzles for students to solve! They worked in teams to unlock the clues. -->
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<-- For a break from technology, students enjoyed a Dot Day version of Connect Four.
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International Dot Day (Week) - September 2019
Preparation for Dot Day (actually Dot WEEK) begins early at Orchard School. Every student creates a dot to place in the hall. This year, each day represented a color - all Monday classes were on Team Red, Tuesday's were Team Orange, so on through rainbow order. The resulting display looked like this:
This year's Dot Day centers included Quiver, StickTogether and LEGO Wall (LEGOs are made up of dots...). Here are a few images from these activities.
Below are some tweeted images from our week FULL of Skype visits with schools across the country. Every one of Orchard's 22 classrooms connected with another group celebrating Dot Day.
International Dot Day - September 2018
The student dots seen in the video were created in a variety of techniques, including Crayola's Crayon Melter. Teams of students worked on the Stick Together mural outside the library. They also used augmented reality to create some amazing dots using the Quiver app on ipads!
In addition to creating the fabulous dots seen the video above, Orchard School students visited with classes across the US through Skype and Google Hangout. We connected with classes in Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey and Texas! Some tweets with additional information are below.
International Dot Day - September 2017
Some exciting connections occurred during Dot Day week. Classes used Skype or Google Hangout to visit with students as far away as Argentina and London! Others spent some time with children in Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland, South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, New York, Massachusetts and the state of Washington. There was even a connection with Hamilton, Ontario in Canada! Students learned about each other, sharing books and creating art together through shared Google drawings and slides. Below are some tweets I sent out using the @OrchardVT Twitter handle.
International Dot Day - September 2015
Below are some images of projects created for Dot Day 2015. They were hanging in the hallway outside of the library.
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