Dots Around the World Project- A Celebration of the book, The Dot

Week two, and the returning students are getting back in the routine.  Week two, and the new students are looking less anxious and fearful.  I am pleased to see that!

In the morning, the boys and girls completed writing the final draft of their paragraph on something about which they love to learn.  They did a nice job on it. 


Today, my surprise was revealed to the students.  We have a new podcasting booth in our room.

 
 

The students also made an audio podcast of their "iLearn" paragraph, but that project will have to come in a later post when I have more time to upload them...

Next, the students learned about International Dot Day and we read the book, The Dot. International Dot Day is a time to celebrate creativity in our children.  More than a half a millions teachers and students are participating in the global project.  Each child is asked to create their own dot image.  The students came up with a diverse gallery of dots.  Check out their creativity below!

 For anyone who has been afraid to express themselves - from a child in art class to an adult whose fear has shut down a dream, Peter H. Reynolds' book The Dot (Candlewick Press) is there to remind us all to "Make your mark, and see where it takes you."

In the afternoon, I gave a more detailed tour of our blog with the help of our Smart Board.  We discussed our Blogging Guidelines and the importance of staying safe in our Internet interactions.  
I focused mainly on:

• Always having parent permission when exploring the Internet at home
• Never sharing personal information about yourself or others when on a blog or website
• Always sign blog posts or comments with only a first name
• Rules, responsibility and expectations come with the privilege of participating in our class blog
• This is an academic blog rather than a purely social blog and our interactions, posts and comments should reflect our learning.  (The learning being shared does not have to be exclusively "school learning."  It can be something learned in an activity with friends or family, a trip or even a new skill learned outside of school.)

We also reviewed how to post a quality comment:

Mrs. Yollis' video,  How to Compose a Quality Comment

Have a wonderful week!