September 15, the National Day of Double Cheeseburgers, Doodling, and DOTS! When it comes to International Dot Day, we join in celebrating the creativity, courage, and curiosity of young minds. It’s a day to recognize the power of imagination and to encourage our next generation to explore their own creativity. Dot Day was originally inspired by Peter H. Reynolds’ book, The Dot, and it has been bringing joy to children across the globe ever since.

This story centers around a young student named Vashti, who begins to doubt herself and her creative ability. With some help and encouragement from her teacher, she decides to “make her mark” and begins to turn what was once a simple dot into a masterpiece. Through art, she learns the true meaning of creativity and having confidence. This year, we’re helping to celebrate the book’s 20th anniversary by releasing The Dot: Read-Aloud STEM kits in collaboration with Carly and Adam.

Our Read-Aloud STEM kits are designed to foster a link between reading and engineering using different versions of the dot. Our kits come with an activity guide students can use to read, draw, and write in. These booklets will direct your students through three STEM-tastic activities they are sure to love.

GET CREATIVE with Dot Stickers

In the first activity, students are asked to create different images using our colorful array of dot stickers and their choice of crayons, markers, or pencils. In the activity guide, we’ve prepared eight different frames for students to use for their magnificent works of art!

CHALLENGE 1: Flying Dot Art

In this task, students are introduced to a new dot artist, Wassily Kandinsky, and they learn how the dot can be turned into abstract art. The project has two parts. In the first part, students make dot art from a coffee filter and then begin assembling their parachutes.

Our kits provide little figure cutouts that students can decorate to look like Vashti, or they can create their own character that will ride the parachute. In part two, the activity guide gives kids an area to design (and redesign if necessary!) and write about the parachutes they created.

CHALLENGE 2: Dot Structures

The final activity gives students the chance to learn about the differences between 2-D and 3-D shapes using clay dots and toothpicks.

They are asked to build an array of shapes and use the final pages in the booklet to write about it and create a story using what they made!

International Dot Day, along with our The Dot: Read-Aloud STEM kits, aims to inspire children to be creative and believe in themselves. Help us celebrate The Dot by coming up with your own dot masterpieces. You can check out what we made using the dot on our Instagram and TikTok, and don’t forget to post and tag us in your very own creations!