I love celebrating International Dot Day as it promotes a great message and an opportunity for students to create a display to kick-off the school year. However, after celebrating for many years, I am trying to now come up with different ideas for the lesson and creative new ways to tie in other learning. Here is my 2020 International Dot Day lesson and display linking the message of starting with dot and also overcoming mistakes and oops inspired by the book of Barney Saltzberg.

After reading The Dot by Peter Reynolds, all grades were given a piece of paper with dye cut and hole punched circles. Shocked by this, I recommend that we throw them all away because we couldn’t use paper with holes in it. Student vehemently protested and played right into my hands. We thought of Vashiti and how she started with dot just like us but out dots here holes like in the book Beautiful Oops

Using LINES, SHAPES & COLORS, students add designs and images based around their holy spots. Students then added liquid watercolor on top. This was the first lesson students had back in the art room so it was a good way to manage safe and distanced use of materials and simple clean-up while getting to duse materials they likely had not used in a while. This lesson was facilitated in 30 minutes for Reception 1 (Pre-K) to Grade 2.

Once every class was finished, my partner and I backed an entire wall with black paper before stapling 700 + individual artworks to the wall creating a huge holy spotty dotty wall.

I know many of you out there, like me, have done the typical Dot Day lesson and display of a swirly gold frame of painted paper plates with a cut-out of Vashti painting them along the wall. So file this one away for future Dot Days as it promotes the same message but also helps students look at negative space as a means to generate ideas as well as promoting using an oops, like a hole in your paper, as an opportunity to create!