The Many Different Flavors of Dot (Day)

Every September 15-ish, schools across the globe celebrate Dot Day which encourages creativity, courage, and collaboration in honor of Peter Reynolds book, The Dot.  My school was no exception--in fact it wasn't just Dot Day, but Dot Week!  Students in grades K-4 found a way to make their mark and then see where it takes them.

The (free) activities that week included all grades listening to The Dot read aloud (used the version on Epic) and watching Peter Reynolds 'Ready, Set, Draw-ish' episode from KidLit TV while creating their own dot drawings.  

K-2 danced and sang along with Emily Arrow's The Dot Song Motions Guide 

and then made their own Dot Day bookmarks...

3rd grade used QuiverVision's Dot Day coloring sheet that allowed them to turn their dots into 3D spheres using an iPad app...

4th grade used Google Draw to create digital Dot Day artwork.

It was such a dot-abulous week that led to a high demand for Peter Reynolds books to checkout!

Multi-Tool Makerspace

I introduced my 4th and 5th graders to what a makerspace was.  I used this video to help: FutureMakers.  I explained that we didn't have all the fancy equipment that they did...yet.

While they were checking out, they had the option to create with Legos, K'Nex, shape patterns, origami, drawing, and jigsaw puzzles.  Some classes took surprisingly well to the idea and went to town!  You could see their imagining, planning, and implementation stages working to full effect.

Here are pictures from one of my classes. 

I have so much I want to have students explore on the topic of makerspaces that I hope to form a club because there is not enough time during the school day!!

What's In A Word? Books Without 'Em

Thinking back to The Fantastic Flying Books... by William Joyce, I realized how this animated short could spark a child's imagination.  As I've mentioned, the short itself has no verbal exchange of words, only music that sets the tone for the scene.  Just think of including this in a unit about wordless books to "jump start" the way students should approach that type of book.  The reader or viewer can tell what is happening without the spoken word, but they still get this deep sense of understanding.  

I am going to challenge myself to provide a unit like this to my students this coming year.  This will be just as exciting a unit for me since I love to go back and review what I've learned about illustrations.  I'm not asking students to make predictions based off the pictures or retell a formulated story.  I want them to look at a wordless book and tell me what emotions it evokes in them, what is happening, do the illustrations tell a story or poem or song, what is happening in their mind as they look at the picture (is the brain trying to make sense of the elements of the picture, is it using the picture to create a movie, is emotion welling up, etc).

So far, the books I would include are Picture This: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang, Wave by Suzy Lee, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, Journey by Aaron Becker, Flotsam by David Wiesner, Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman, Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola, Robot Dreams by Sara Varon (almost wordless), A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka, and The Snowman by Raymond Briggs.  Yes, the age groups for these books seem to jump all over, but I would use these books with 2nd grade and up.

Just imagine moving on to graphic novels after this... the two part analysis of illustrations and text/speech bubbles!!



Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG / freedigitalphotos.net

The Beginnings of a MakerSpace for the Younger Set

I've heard of the term "Makerspaces" but didn't really know what it was specifically. That was until visiting the St. Louis Science Center during one of their First Friday events about games. The science center had an area for kids and teens to make their own board games. Being the curious teacher, I had to go browse. They provide an example of a game before you get to the supply area and then beyond that were tables full of random craft supplies and other materials to use. Think of all the different strategic thinking kids need to do to come up with inventing a game.

I started looking up Makerspaces and of course discovered other libraries and classrooms wanting to give their students a version of this experience.  From 3D printers (how sweet would that be!) to Lego (mindstorms) to book making--the possibilities are endless. I will definitely be using ideas from "Make It @ Your Library."  

One of my new library centers is a MakerSpace with the project changing once every other rotation.  It just so happened that my first MakerSpace item had already been created and used by the kindergarten students before.  I had cut up sponges into rectangular Jenga size pieces and let the students use them to build or form letters.  This idea was only used because I didn't want the noise. Lo and behold, they were fascinated by the new tactile experience of building with sponges. 

I altered the MakerSpace and added clothespins and index cards just to see where the imaginations of kindergarten and 1st graders would go.  Some chose to just use the blocks and create buildings, others wanted to spell their names, and some just stacked and clipped away.  There were individuals working by themselves and pairs and teams of three and four.  It was exciting to see the interactions.

Since this was the first time with the concept, the students did not keep their final products.  I believe after testing this idea with 5 classes that this is an idea worth continuing.  I plan on adding disposable materials so that when the students finish, they can keep the product (e.g. graphic novels/comic books or printed virtual books).