Celebrating Dot Day

We celebrated Dot Day last Friday.  This was a perfect way to introduce ourselves to our Global Read Aloud buddies. After reading The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds, we made postcards. On the back we introduced ourselves and shared a little about ourselves, without revealing any personal information of course!  Then we decorated the front using tiny dot stickers.

I will mail these to the class we have connected with in California and they will send us their postcards.  Once we receive their postcards, we will use them to help us pick our book buddies for the Global Read Aloud which begins in October. The kids are so excited!

The Dot helped us learn about theme.  The students discussed Vashti's character at the beginning of the story and then again at the end.  Some of the themes we came up with were perseverance and compassion.

We also used the ColAR app to make our dots come alive.  Students took screenshots and posted them on Edmodo to share with their classmates.  In the words of  Jackson, "Dot Dayhttp://fablevisionlearning.com/blog/2013/08/dot-day-fun-watch-your-dot-come-to-life-in-amazing-3d-in-the-colar-app/ is Wicked!"

Our class having fun on Dot Day!

The official Dot Day song! I didn't even know there was one.  :-)

If you celebrated International Dot Day, please leave a comment and share what you did below.  

Connecting with Technology

We're Back . . . . Well Almost!

I'm really excited about this school year - a brand new grade level, a brand new group of eager students, a class set of iPads, magnetic white boards . . . I know! Sometimes it's the small things.

This year my class will be participating in International Dot Day (September 15) and The global Read Aloud.  This will be my second year participating in the The Global Read Aloud which begins in Oct.  You can read my post about my experience last year. I have already connected with some great teachers.  We decided to use The Dot as a way to connect our students before we actually begin GRA.  Once GRA begins we will be reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  I am excited about connecting my students again this year and giving them a real purpose for writing.

Both of these activities provide wonderful opportunities to "Engage students in authentic learning by providing real-life examples and interdisciplinary connections" (breathe).  That's straight from TKES. If you want to know more, please check out the Prezi which has lots of resources for both activities.

Have a Great School Year!
Sheila