The Day of the Dot!

First grade celebrated our first PLUSS day by enjoying a day centered around the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds.

Our day began with a reading of the book by Mr. Hardy, one of the 5th grade teachers.  First, third, fourth, and fifth grades gathered together in the assembly room.  After hearing the story, which would be our theme for the day, we got together with Senorita Neyra to learn about dots otherwise known as "punto" in Spanish.  The children counted the puntos on their dominos.  

When we came back to the classroom, we did some dot to dot activities and then headed to lunch. Next we got together with our LS art teachers, Ms. Weiss and Ms. Shelley, to create a leaf picture using dots. The children traced leaf templates and then used dots to outline and, in some cases, fill in the leaves. Blotter markers were used to created a dotted border around the picture.  Some friends got to extend their creativity with a free art drawing/painting.  

We continued to be creative with dots by making pictures with them when we got back to our classroom.  After recess we got together with Mrs. Rutstein's sixth graders to play some dot games.  We used the iPads to play the apps Flow and Dots (both are free apps if you're interested in checking them out) and also played the familiar paper/pencil dot/boxes game.  

Most of us agreed that our first PLUSS day was a lot of fun!  

Here's an animation for the book The Dot:

At FSB we value creativity as a habit of mind, recognizing that when individuals are allowed to be creative, more meaningful learning can occur.  

Parents & first graders, how have you sought to be creative in your learning?  

Please comment below to share your response with all of us.