International Dot Day Activities to Inspire Creativity in Your Classroom

Have you ever spotted International Dot Day on your September calendar and thought, “Okay…so are we just drawing dots?” Maybe you love the idea of celebrating creativity, but you aren’t quite sure what that should actually look like in your classroom. The good news is that Dot Day can be so much more than handing out paper circles and colorful markers. With the right International Dot Day activities, your students can see the many ways there are to make their mark.

What Is International Dot Day?

International Dot Day is celebrated each year on or around September 15th. The day focuses on creativity, courage, and collaboration while encouraging people of all ages to “make their mark.” Our students can express themselves through art, writing, music, and other creative experiences.

For us teachers, that gives us plenty of flexibility when deciding how to celebrate. Your International Dot Day activities don’t have to fit into one subject or require an entire day. You can incorporate the celebration into writing, technology, STEM, art, or even a short morning activity.

The day gives your students permission to experiment with their ideas. They don’t need to create something that looks exactly like everyone else’s work. Instead, you can encourage them to try something, build upon it, and see where their creativity takes them.

The best part is that you don’t need an elaborate lesson plan to bring those ideas into your classroom. A simple writing prompt, creative challenge, or collaborative activity can give your students a chance to make their mark. If you’re wondering where to begin, these International Dot Day activities can help you turn the celebration into something your students will remember.

1. Transform an Ordinary Object Into Something New

One of my favorite ways to encourage creativity is to give my students something familiar and ask them to see it differently. Instead of beginning with a blank page, give your students an ordinary object as their starting point. Their challenge is to transform that object into something completely new.

You can keep this International Dot Day activity incredibly simple. Give all your students a shape and ask them to incorporate it into an original picture. A circle might become a flying saucer, while a rectangle could become the trunk of a palm tree. Before they begin, remind your students that there isn’t one correct way to transform their shape.

You can take this idea further with my Think Like an Artist Disguise activities. Your students begin with a familiar school object or sports object and transform it into something completely different. Instead of showing your students a finished example, introduce the challenge and let them decide what their object could become.

You can use the activity with your whole class or set it up as a creative center. Give your students at least 20–25 minutes to work through their ideas and create their designs. They can also use the included engineering design process to ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve. If you want to extend the activity, the response sheets I included allow your students to write about the creations they designed.

The best part is seeing how differently your students approach the same starting point. Make sure to factor in time for your students to share their creations and explain the thinking behind them. This reinforces the idea that making your mark doesn’t mean creating what someone else has created. It means bringing your own ideas to the experience!

2. Use Writing to Encourage Creative Thinking

International Dot Day activities don’t have to center only around drawing and art. Writing gives your students another way to make their mark. Instead of asking for one expected answer, give them a prompt that encourages imagination and original thinking.

You might ask your students to describe something they would invent or create a brand-new toy. They could imagine an invention from 100 years in the future or design their own board game. These kinds of prompts are included in my Digital Journal Prompts, which give your students space to type and explain their ideas.

You don’t need to turn this into a full writing lesson either. Choose one prompt and use it as a morning warm-up before your International Dot Day activities begin. You could also add the prompt to one of your classroom rotations, giving your students time to respond independently. Simply delete the slides you don’t need and assign the prompt you want your students to complete.

Whichever option you choose, give your students enough time to develop their ideas instead of rushing through several prompts. Encourage them to explain how their creation works, what makes it unique, or why they made certain choices. When your students finish, invite a few volunteers to share their responses so everyone can hear the different ideas their classmates imagined.

3. Add a Growth Mindset Conversation to International Dot Day Activities

Creativity often requires your students to keep going when their first idea doesn’t work. That makes International Dot Day a natural opportunity to talk about growth mindset. You can help your students see that making their mark doesn’t require getting everything right immediately.

Start by asking your students what they do when something feels difficult. Then, discuss how their thinking changes when they add the word “yet.” My Digital Journal Prompts includes an activity where students describe what having a growth mindset would look like. You could extend the journal activity on the blank slides I provided by having your students change a fixed mindset statement to an open mindset statement.

After your students respond, connect the conversation back to the creative work they’re doing that day. A drawing might change, an invention might need another idea, or a design might require improvement. Remind your students that revising an idea doesn’t mean the first attempt failed. It means they were willing to keep working and see what their idea could become.

4. Let Your Students Create Together

Some of the best International Dot Day activities give our students opportunities to build upon each other’s ideas. Instead of having every activity end with an individual product, include time for your students to create together. This brings the collaboration piece of International Dot Day directly into your classroom.

One simple option is to begin with a circle and have your students add to the same creation one at a time. Each student could contribute one detail before passing the paper to another classmate. Ask your students to work with what is already there instead of covering or removing someone else’s contribution.

Once the creation is finished, give the group time to look at what they made together. Ask them which ideas changed as new details were added and how their classmates influenced the final creation. This helps your students see that making their mark can also mean contributing something meaningful to a larger idea.

5. Turn International Dot Day Into a Creative Writing Challenge

Once your students create something original, you can challenge them to take their ideas even further through writing. Instead of simply finishing their artwork and moving on, ask them to imagine the story behind their creation. This adds another layer of creativity without requiring an entirely separate activity.

The Think Like an Artist Disguise activities already include writing pages that make this extension easy. After transforming an object, students can write a story about what their new creation became. The Pumpkin Disguise resource allows students to write a story about how they disguised a pumpkin shape into something totally different.

Give your students time to share their stories alongside their artwork when they finish. You could display both pieces together. You can even turn this into a collaborative activity by asking students to write about a drawing they created together.

6. Create a Classroom Display of Your Students’ Marks

Your International Dot Day activities don’t have to disappear when September 15th ends. Displaying your students’ creations gives you another opportunity to reinforce the idea behind the celebration. More importantly, every student’s contribution becomes part of something the class created together.

You could display individual dot creations, disguise drawings, writing responses, or several types of projects together. Give each of your students space so the display celebrates the variety of ideas throughout your classroom. The Disguise activities are specifically designed so student creations look different and can be displayed afterward.

Once everything is displayed, spend a few minutes exploring the finished collection as a class. Ask your students to notice different approaches rather than choosing a “best” creation. Your display then becomes a visual reminder that there are many ways to make your mark.

7. Celebrate International Dot Day With Music and Movement

Creativity doesn’t always have to happen with a pencil, paintbrush, or computer. International Dot Day also celebrates expressing yourself through music. Adding music and movement gives your students another way to participate in the celebration.

Choose a song your students already know and challenge them to create movements to accompany it. You could divide your students into small groups and give them several minutes to plan. You want to encourage each group to create movements together rather than having one student make every decision. This is easier said than done sometimes, but it is an essential skill for our students to learn and practice.

Then, give each group an opportunity to share what they created. Talk about how every group heard the same music but interpreted it differently. It’s another simple way to show your students that everyone can make their mark in their own way.

8. Challenge Your Students to Make Their Mark as a Team

International Dot Day is also about collaboration, so give your students a challenge they can’t complete alone. Divide your class into small groups and give each group several paper circles and basic classroom supplies. Their challenge is to combine those circles into one creation that represents their group.

Before anyone touches the materials, give your groups a few minutes to brainstorm. Each student should contribute one idea for what their circles could become. Maybe the circles become wheels on a vehicle, planets in space, or parts of an imaginary creature. Then, your students need to combine their ideas and decide together what they want to create.

As your students work, encourage them to build on their classmates’ suggestions rather than immediately replacing them. You might ask, “How can you include part of both ideas?” or “Whose idea haven’t we incorporated yet?” Those questions keep collaboration at the center of the challenge.

Finish by having each group present their creation and explain how everyone’s ideas contributed to it. Ask what changed between their original plan and their finished design. This turns one of your International Dot Day activities into a concrete example of how individual marks can become something bigger together.

9. End Your International Dot Day Activities With Reflection

Before your International Dot Day celebration ends, give your students a few minutes to think about what “making your mark” means to them. Their reflection doesn’t need to become another lengthy assignment. A quick conversation or short written response can bring the different activities together.

You might ask students what they created that made them proud, or about times when they tried something new. They could also identify an idea from a classmate that surprised them. Another option is asking how they can continue making their mark after International Dot Day.

Bring the conversation back to what your students experienced throughout the day or class period. They created their own ideas, saw different perspectives, and contributed to something alongside their classmates. That final reflection helps International Dot Day become more than a collection of fun activities.

Continue Creating With STEM for a Year Club

If your students love creating during your International Dot Day activities, why stop after September 15th? You can continue giving them opportunities to imagine, design, problem-solve, and create throughout the school year. The best part is that you don’t have to plan every challenge from scratch.

Before your International Dot Day celebration ends, give your students a few minutes to think about what “making your mark” means to them.

Each challenge also includes task cards and differentiated response sheets, with options ranging from drawing to the engineering design process. Printable and digital versions give you even more flexibility when planning your STEM time. Instead of searching for another activity each week, you’ll have creative challenges ready when your students are ready to make their next mark.

Make International Dot Day Activities Part of Something Bigger

One of my favorite things about International Dot Day is that its message can continue long after September 15th. Creativity, courage, and collaboration are skills our students use whenever they try something new. Dot Day simply gives us a fun opportunity to pause and celebrate those skills together.

As you plan your International Dot Day activities, don’t feel like you need an elaborate schedule. Choose one or two activities that fit naturally into your classroom. Give your students time to create, share their thinking, and discover how differently their classmates approach the same challenge. Most importantly, remind your students that making their mark isn’t limited to one special day. Every new idea, creative risk, and contribution is another chance to share something uniquely their own.

Save These International Dot Day Activities for Later

Save these International Dot Day activities to your favorite Pinterest board so they’re ready when September rolls around. Come back when you’re planning your celebration for easy ways to help your students create and make their mark.