September 15 was International Dot Day! It is the day students, teachers and everyone who loves Peter Reynold’s book, The Dot, celebrate creativity, perseverance and courage. The book tells the story of Vashti, a young girl who is very frustrated because she doesn’t believe she can draw.  But, with the encouragement of her teacher, she learns to make her mark, perseveres and becomes a great artist by simply using dots!

Here at the Hiiliei Media Center, our Dot Day adventure started bright and early with our morning classes and recess. Our students listened to the story on Tumblebooks, sang the Dot Day song written by Emily Arrow and then had a choice from two art activities. They could either create their own artistic mark using an augmented reality coloring page from Quivervision and watch it come alive using the free app on their iPads or they could decorate a Dot Day card with stickers, stamps and their own artistic style . Our older students designed their own 3D cards using the themes of I Mua, Lokomaikaʻi, Kulia and Hoʻomau.

As you can see, everyone involved had a blast – students and adults as well. By the end of the day, the students were teaching each other the Dot Day song and dance, could recite the story almost word for word and were proudly showing off their artistic creations. In fact, we all had so much fun we continued it well into September 16. After all, author Peter Reynolds always says, “Dot Day is on September 15ish”!