Today we celebrated International Dot Day (#DotDay) in our classroom. Based on the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds, Dot Day is a time for folks to think about creative ways in which they can make a mark on the world. This year, there were over 1,200,000 people from 82 countries signed on to celebrate! There are even some Celebri-dots created by authors, illustrators and celebrities!!
I am a FableVision Ambassador, and love sharing their positive message both online and in person. Every year, we celebrate Dot Day in our classroom. Creativity is essential to learning, and reading The Dot gets our year in third grade off to a great start. Today, on Big Screen Books, we listened to Peter Reynolds read his book and talk to students about his journey as an author.
We listened to the song Make A Wave, from Disney’s Friends for Change program, which encourages kids to become inspired citizens in our communities:
Our day wrapped up with students creating their own Dots. In past years, we created paper dots to hang in the classroom. This year, dot creation took on a whole new persona. Wait until you see!!!!
Over the summer, my kids and I played with an app called ColAR App. It’s free, and it takes 2-D colored pages and renders them in 3-D. Here’s Carson’s dragon:
And here is my little airplane:
I started thinking that ColAR App would be perfect for Dot Day – what if they created a simple dot that could be animated by students? I started writing emails to both ColAR App and Fablevision, introducing the two with the suggestion to work together on a Dot Day project. Before I knew it, the plan was in place, and we were ready to roll!
Make your mark, and see where it takes you…. Throw a pebble in the water! Make a wave!!
Fast forward to Dot Day, 2013. This fabulous augmented reality experience was a long-awaited surprise for our students today! 204 students happily colored their dots during class, and then we whipped out our iPads and surprised them by virtually bringing them to life in amazing 3-D. Check out the amazing pictures!!
We even figured out that if we put ordinary objects within the circle, we could show them in 3-D, too!!
Be sure to talk to your child about ways in which he or she can make a difference in our world. They each have fabulous ideas to share!
Make A Wave,
🙂 School weeks where there are half-days or evening activities (open house, concerts, etc…), you will see no homework listed. It is still important to find 20 minutes for reading during those times, though!
🙂 Thank you for passing in all of your forms and paperwork. If you haven’t finished your parent survey, please send that in. I refer to them many times during the year.
🙂 Book orders are due this Friday.
