Dot Day

Inside: Our Dot Day art in Grade 1.

Happy International Dot Day!

My class and I just finished reading The Dot by Peter Reynolds.

This is a sweet and witty story about one child’s experience making art.

Here’s the blurb from Amazon:

Her teacher smiled. “Just make a mark and see where it takes you.”

Art class is over, but Vashti is sitting glued to her chair in front of a blank piece of paper. The words of her teacher are a gentle invitation to express herself. But Vashti can’t draw – she’s no artist. To prove her point, Vashti jabs at a blank sheet of paper to make an unremarkable and angry mark. “There!” she says.

That one little dot marks the beginning of Vashti’s journey of surprise and self-discovery. That special moment is the core of Peter H. Reynolds’s delicate fable about the creative spirit in all of us.

My class loved the story and everyone agreed that Vashti’s art turned out to be beautiful.

But it was funny hearing the kids’ reactions. NONE of them could understand why anyone would find it difficult to “make a mark” on a piece of paper 🙂

And they were sincerely baffled as to why anyone would find it difficult to paint.

On the one hand I was surprised that they had little empathy for Vashti, but on the other I was thrilled that they all felt so confident about their own artistic abilities.

After reading and talking about The Dot we all made our own dotty paintings.

Thanks for stopping by.

You can see more of our art here.  I’ve posted lots but you need to scroll down a bit and click on “old posts” so you can see it all.