If you aren’t familiar with Peter Reynold’s “The Dot”, I would highly recommend you pick up a copy and check it out . . . it’s one of my favorites! At the beginning of the year, I try to immerse my students in amazing pictures books as we start the process of “digging deeper” into what we read–from the very first day of school. This year, as I have for the past 4 or 5 years, I read “The Dot” to my students on the first day of school and we worked to generate a list of what lessons or “big ideas” we thought Peter Reynolds had in mind when writing the book. I was super impressed with how well my students did in their first “literary discussion”!
I took their ideas and went home and typed them all up . . .
. . . but first the kids made their own dots! They were SO excited to be able to paint on the first day of school! I’m not going to give away the entire book, but let’s just say the main character struggled in art class–and the teacher had a miraculous way of helping her overcome her problem. It’s a book about struggle . . . about encouragement . . . about creativity . . . about so many things. So off to paint we went!
And when it was all said and done, I displayed their work for us to have about all ever-important lessons we learned on the first day of school. We will refer to the book often this year . . . hope you enjoy!
Just a quick note . . . I had SEVERAL second and third grade teachers ask if I was going to make an easier version of my “Mind Boggling Math” enrichment resource–so I did! If you teach second or third, this would be a great resource to have for your fast finishers or students needing enrichment and critical thinking! Hot off the presses!
