"Dot or Not" Dot Day Project

Dot Day 2021 found me pushing into 18 different classrooms on a cart. I wanted to plan something for Dot Day, but I wasn't sure where to begin given my situation at the time. What we came up with is something I think is worth sharing - even if it has taken me almost a year to do so! The theme I used was "The Little Things are the Big Things."

First, I partnered with the research team at my school. We are a K-12 school, and they have a truly state of the art facility in the high school building. While many of the elementary classes toured the lab during the year, it was going to be hard to take all of my  elementary classes during the first couple of weeks of September. So after talking about types of microscopes with my students, we took a virtual tour of the Owls Imaging Lab. This was a huge hit! With one-to-one devices, I was able to let my students explore the virtual experience independently. They loved that they got to choose what to look at first.

After viewing the lab, I read Do Not Lick This Book to my classes. This book was popular with students of all ages. We talked a lot about the difference between macro and micro images. I emphasized how things can look quite different when magnified. Most of the images in the book were taken with imaging tools. I introduced the idea of macro and micro photos of the same items.

Then it was time to start the project. I told the students that the art teacher and I had picked a few items from her room. We were wondering what they would look like under a microscope. With Dot Day coming up, that led us to ask the question, "Dot or Not?" 

Each student chose an art supply and predicted whether they thought the images the imaging lab took would contain a dot. I recorded the names and each hypothesis on a spreadsheet like this one. I made a big show about how these items were going to be imaged in the actual lab that we had virtually visited. 

The next week, I shared the image folder. The research team used the best tools for each item, so not all items were viewed with all tools. There was great excitement. 

I did this project with K-5, so different grade levels shared their results in different ways. I worked with the art teacher to have each student make a large dot with the words DOT on one side and NOT on the other. We used these to record green screen videos to share whether or not the micro image had a DOT for Dot Day.

(My then-kindergartener)

(My then-4th grader)

My younger students used Seesaw to tell about their project. They completed most of it themselves, and I added our green screen videos after they turned in the assignment.

(Click to view)

My older students first used Google Slides to share their results. I found out as we were working on this that using Adobe Spark (now Adobe Express) was an option for the local science fair. To show that you can share information multiple ways, the upper grades also created an Adobe presentation with the information. They LOVE this presentation tool.

(Adobe Express Presentation)

This project ended up going into November, but it reinforced a lot of the tech skills I wanted to go over with my students.

(Photo taken right before Halloween)

We were also creating things as we went along and dealing with quarantined classes. I expect this could be recreated in a multitude of ways and not so drawn out.

Links:

Dot or Not Spreadsheet Template (Force copy link to spreadsheet I used with my students)

Link to FAU HS Owls Imaging Lab Virtual Experience

Folder of Images from FAU HS Owls Imaging Lab

The Owls Imaging Lab research team has put together the watermarked photos in a folder and gave me the okay to share them. I'm excited to see what others come up with using these tools!

Dot Day 2014: STEAM Dots

I love The Dot. International Dot Day is September 15ish. I love the story and the idea behind Dot day. If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it!

Last year my students just made dots. It was my first couple of months in the STEAM Lab, and it was my first real art project. It went well, but this year I decided to change it up a bit. My upper elementary students made STEAM Dots.

The science dots were made using sun prints. The students got to find an object that would leave a "dot" shadow. Once in water the students were amazed as the colors set.

This was a big hit! I have more sun print paper left over and will definitely use it again for another project later in the year. It would be a great art connection after studying our WeatherSTEM station's UV sensor.

I love colAR. I let all my 375+ students make one of these dots. They each got to see their dot come to life using the app. I compiled each class' dots into a book that I posted in the hallway. Augmented reality still amazes me!

For engineering dots,  I was inspired by these 3D color wheels. I wasn't picky on the colors used, but I liked the idea of students figuring out how to transform 4 paper plates into a 3D shape. Other students chose to use this printable soccer ball template to create a paper ball dot. Both were a litle challenging, but worked well.

For art dots, I left out crayons, markers, texture plates, and tempera paint. They had lots of options, but most of my artist prefer paint. I had a number of Jason Pollock inspired dots.

Math was the area I had the hardest time to figure out. I brainstormed and I provided students with die cut pattern blocks. Some students used the blocks to create dots. The more popular math dot was compass painting.

My 3-5 students all made a technology dot and then got to choose one other dot to make. I'd planned to do the same with some of the younger grades but after making the colAR dots, I decided it was too much. Instead I opted to try something else.

 

 My K-2 students made these coffee filter dots.  I really enjoyed the project and the finished results.

My favorite part of out Dot Day celebrations this year was having the kids work outside. We've really worked on our outdoor learning space. I love opening my back door and having students work on the patio.

So, the post might be a little late-ish, but there you have it!

International Dot Day 2013

This post is about a week past due. Last weekend was my birthday. This weekend was just family time. It’s all good!

While my room is in the process of being transformed to the STEAM Lab, it is the old art room. About half of the kids call me the art teacher. I was discouraged by the number of students who declared to me (the ‘art teacher’) that they can not draw. There were kindergarteners who refused to try to draw because they are not good at it.

I consider myself to be more creative than artistic. I have always worked to integrate the arts into my teaching. Teaching an actual art lesson is a little outside of my comfort zone, but I’m working on it.

I decided to start with The Dot because of the message behind the story. We started with individual dot galleries (see here for more about that) made up of four to six little frames.

For our International Dot Day display, each student made one additional frame. With just over 400 students, it took me about two hours to hang these all in the hall.



I sorted the dots by grade level. I’m loving The Happy Caterpillar paper set by My Clip Art Store. (Not MY clip art store by the way – that is the name of the store!)

 

 

The teachers and staff got into the fun as well. I gave all interested adults a full sheet of paper from the teacher’s guide.



Next year I should be able to add a digital component to the day. I’m still waiting for the computers and SMART board to arrive, but they should be set up in the next couple of weeks. By next year’s International Dot Day, we should be in business! There are lots of possibilities with Skype and such. I can’t wait!

Five for Friday

Today chewed me up and spit me back out.  I won’t go into it, but I’ve decided to take the afternoon for myself. I’m looking at Pinterest and reading blogs. I haven’t done either of those things in a while. I miss it!

So, I am determined to post my Five for Friday ON Friday this time. Here goes nothing…

1

Today was my first day teaching art. While the rest of my day was rough, I enjoyed my classes. (For those who may be new to my blog, I am in a STEAM lab this year. I teach 6 classes a day K-5 on a three day rotating schedule.) I was a little nervous about it. My first two classes were a little crazy, but by the end of the day I managed to finish projects AND clean up before they left me. With only two minutes between classes it is a bit hectic!

2

Speaking of Art, my first project was based on The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. I started with the story:

I’ve already had several students complain that they are not good at art, so I thought it would be a good starting ground.

I gave each student frames to fill with their dot creation. They got 4-8 frames depending on the grade level. I had stations set up around the room for them to create using crayons, markers, paper/glue, and watercolor.



After they completed their dot art, they put it together into their own dot gallery. They look fantastic!



It wasn’t the most technical of lessons, but they were really creative and even the fifth grade boys who rolled their eyes when I started the lesson got into it in the end.

My next step is to sign up for International Dot Day. It just so happens to be on my birthday.

I want to get each student to design one more dot that we will hang up on the GIANT bulletin boards outside my room. With 18 classes K-5, it will be a lot of dots. 

3

Earlier this week I did some more with the Common Core Digital Citizenship Curriculum. I printed these in poster size.

image source

image source

I found with the number of our students on Instagram, I was using the middle school poster starting in third grade. Crazy! It is a great resource though!

4

My own two little ones have requested a picnic in the living room the last two nights. No picnic is complete without popcorn and a movie.

After a long day at work, I can’t complain!

5

I knew Monday was Labor Day, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I realized we are off on Thursday as well. Many of the schools in South Florida don’t have school on the major Jewish holidays. I am not Jewish myself, so I didn’t realize it was next week. Talk about a welcome surprise! I won’t turn down a three day week!

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Enjoy your long weekend!