It’s almost time for International Dot Day, September 15-ish. Anyone who celebrates the creativity of Peter Reynold’s The Dot will love International Dot Day (and if you haven’t read it yet, you really must). The Dot Day website relates
International Dot Day, a global celebration of creativity, courage and collaboration, began when teacher Terry Shay introduced his classroom to Peter H. Reynolds’ book The Dot on September 15, 2009.
The Dot is the story of a caring teacher who dares a doubting student to trust in her own abilities by being brave enough to “make her mark”. What begins with a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage, igniting a journey of self-discovery and sharing, which has gone on to inspire countless children and adults around the globe.
And each year on International Dot Day – with the help of people just like you –the inspiration continues.
What can you do? You could begin by signing up as a participant class and downloading the Educator’s Handbook. From there, the sky’s the limit. As Peter Reynolds explains in the Handbook’s Introduction:
…[T]h only real guideline for Dot Day is that folks read The Dot and then express themselves in any way they are inspired to, whether that means creating a dot— building a dot gallery — collaborating on a dot gallery with teachers/parents — animating a dot — writing a story about being brave and making your mark — going on a dot photo safari to find dot shapes in our world — writing a dot song — doing a dot-inspired dance — putting on a live performance of The Dot, or more! How you celebrate Dot Day is up to you — and your friends.
The Handbook is full of dot-inspired ideas. Or you can check out the online gallery to see what others have done. You can even join the International Dot Day Project through Skype in the Classroom to share with classes worldwide, or follow the excitement on Twitter through #DotDay or #Makeyourmark. I love the Celebri-dots blog, in which authors and celebrities create dot-inspired works of their own.
And if you can’t quite manage the activities you’d like to do by September 15, don’t worry. Who better than Peter Reynolds to remind us that as long as the celebration of creativity is September 15-ish, it’s just fine.
