Making Marks That Matter

International Dot Day is today, September 15-ish

It's a celebration of creativity, courage and community inspired by Peter H. Reynolds book, The Dot. 
Here in my library we've been celebrating International Dot Day all week.

Promoting this year's celebration with last year's art.

Last year, my students (grades 1-5) celebrated International Dot Day by making their mark, sometimes individually, sometimes collaboratively.  My favorite project?  The  Vashti~ish Dot Thoughts.

This year, I've taken a different approach.  I've been using The Dot to start a discussion about creating a library learning community. What has ensued all week is a great discussion about taking risks, being brave and paying it forward. I've been bringing this idea around to our library learning community and how we will help, support and encourage each other to be brave and take risks.  In the K class I started with one child and created a thread of one child helping another through the entire class. They loved this tangible example.

After this discussion, the students in grades one and four created a library learning community pledge.
For the first graders, I was their scribe and they each signed it with their unique mark.

For the fourth graders, I explained the process for creating the pledge - each student should choose a different color to add their own sentence about something he or she wanted to work on or their wish for our classroom community. I am excited to have these hanging in our library all year as a reminder about our learning community.

The kindergarten students "Made Their Mark" on their library cards -- each time they check out a book, they will remember The Dot and their promise to be brave, take risks, and help each other in our learning community.

The fifth graders took on "The Dot Heard 'Round the World" theme and created "Marks That Matter" -- Dot Thoughts that will be sent through a literacy program to other students across the globe.

The Dot translated by my students.

It's never too late to participate!

I wonder what next year's 10th anniversary of The Dot will bring...ten ways to make your mark? hmmmmm...stay tuned!