International Dot Day is celebrated on September 15th every year in honor of the release day of picture book, The Dot by Peter. H. Reynolds on September 15, 2003. 6 years after the release of the book, a teacher, Terry Shay read it to his class and then inspired them to make their mark in the world just like Vashti, the main character in the story. As more and more teachers learned of what happened, they too began doing the same in their classrooms and the traditions spread across the world.
Here are 10 simple ways to celebrate Dot Day in the classroom!
- Read The Dot by Peter. H. Reynolds
- Encourage students to wear polka dots.
- Have students to draw a decorate a dot and make it their own.
- Retell the story with a beginning, middle, and end.
- Curate a class gallery with each student’s drawing of their dot.
- Go on a DOT hunt in the classroom and school.
- Make a list of animals that have “dots”.
- Have students bring in items from home that have dots or are dots from home to share.
- Encourage students to turn a black dot cut out of construction paper to something else.
- Students can create their own Connect the Dot activity and connect them while practice counting!
If you need more Dot Day activities, check out the packet below. Click on the images to grab them now!
