March Dolphin Awareness Month

Dolphin Awareness Month is  a good time to highlight dolphins and to draw attention to their vulnerability to hunting, fishing, capture, and exploitation.

Dolphins are mammals. They are considered one of the world's most intelligent animals, and they have several cognitive abilities that set them apart. You can see dolphin intelligence in action in the way they communicate and use tools.

One of the fascinating things about these marine mammals is their complex methods of communication. There are three main ways they communicate: whistles, echolocation, and social communication. Dolphins can make squeaks, buzzes, whistles, clicks, and a wide array of other crazy noises. These whistles can be heard by others of the species from miles away. Their whistle repertoire can change as they get older, and dolphins who bond with one another can learn each others signature whistles and often copy each other’s whistles.

There are nearly forty different species of dolphins found in oceans around the world. The largest dolphin is the Orca also known as the Killer Whale which can grow to ten metres long. Some dolphins have evolved to live in freshwater. 

This is a very easy display. Collect all the nonfiction books from the shelf and then add some fiction. Here's some good ones to start your search

• Dolphin Boy  by Michael Morpurgo and Michael Foreman 

Jim lives in a Cornish fishing village - but since the fish disappeared, no one goes fishing any more. One day, Jim spots a dolphin beached on the sand, and soon the whole village is working together to return the dolphin to the water. The dolphin stays in the harbour, playing with Jim and the swimmers, but then the dolphin disappears... 

• Dolphin Baby  by Nicola Davies and Britt Granstrom

The moment Dolphin Baby pops into the blue, he swims up, up, up ... and takes his very first breath. From then on, the baby calf swims close to his mother's side, discovering all there is to know about life under the sea

• Wild Orca  by Brenda Peterson and Wendell Minor

Pays tribute to Granny, the world's oldest-known orca whale who lived to be one hundred and five. Told from the perspective of young Mia and her family on a whale-watching excursion in the San Juan Islands, this intimate and informative story celebrates the importance of nature, tradition, communication, and family in both human and orca communities. 

• Little Hector and the Big Blue Whale  by Ruth Paul

A picture book  to find out all about the tiny and endangered Hector's dolphin. A small but daring dolphin, Little Hector swims out into the deep blue ocean. He meets many dangers - and an unlikely friend - and proves you are never too small to have BIG adventures. There are two more titles in this series about Hector.

• Pelorus Jack the Dolphin Guide  by Susan Brocker

This is the heart-warming New Zealand tale of Pelorus Jack, a rare white Risso’s dolphin who delighted passengers over 100 years ago as he guided steamships through the rough waters of French Pass into the calm waters of the Marlborough Sounds. It is believed he became the first sea creature to be protected by law in any country.

• Little Dolphin  by Mark Wilson

Follows Little Dolphin from her difficult birth to her escape through the shark net that traps her mother. She is adopted by a pod that teach her the clicks and whistles of the dolphin language, They also teach her how to use tools

• Arion the Dolphin Boy  by Saviour Pirotta or 

• Arion and the Dolphin  by Vikram Seth

Arion, a young musician at the court of Periander in ancient Greece is thrown overboard on his return from a musical contest, Arion is saved and befriended by a dolphin.

And a novel, Little Dolphin Rescue  by Rachel Delahaye

21st February World Pangolin Day

World Pangolin Day happens on the third Saturday of every February, falling on 21st February this year. Pangolins play a critical role in their ecosystems, providing the Earth with all-natural pest control and are fantastic soil tenders simply through their everyday behaviours.

This is a day to raise awareness for pangolins, the world’s only scaled mammal and the most illegally traded mammal in the world. The pangolin is also known as a scaly anteater and resides in Africa and Asia. All eight species of pangolins are in danger, and the two most-endangered pangolin species may become extinct within ten years. mammal. Their scales serve as armour to fend off predators, but unfortunately, these scales can do nothing to protect them from the biggest threat to their existence: humans. 

I have written about pangolins before and how I first learned of their existence so use the search bar to read these blogs. It is much easier to introduce them to students now as there are so many more good nonfiction books about them, such as this one, part of a series which is popular in our library.

 

Others to look for:

And a new story:

15th February Galileo Day

15th February each year is Galileo Day - a celebration of the anniversary of Italian Galileo Galilei's birth in 1564. He died on 8th January 1642. He was a physicist, a mathematician, an astronomer and a philosopher. Galileo was best known for his work supporting Copernicanism, showing the Earth was in fact not at the centre of the universe. He was the scientist who first saw the craters of the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, and the phases of Venus. His discoveries shook the world and proved that the planets orbit the Sun!

Galileo was a truly inspirational scientist. Like Darwin, the ideas he put forward, though correct, were met with large amounts of controversy and resistance from the Church. However, he stuck to the scientific method and followed the conclusions the evidence led to. He built on what Nicolaus Copernicus (born 19th February, 1473) believed and went on to prove him correct. It will be Copernicus Day on the 19th February. 

The library has many books about astronomy, but these are about Galileo in particular:

14th February Valentines Day, Library Lovers Day, International Book Giving Day, Clifford's Birthday

Yes, it's Valentines Day, but more importantly it is International Book Giving Day and Library Lovers Day. 

I have written about these days at length before and activities that we have done at school to celebrate. See here; here and here.

Two books I haven't used on this day, but could 

This heartwarming picture book is a love letter to libraries and all the moments that make them so special and it is perfect to read and talk about with young children.

This one is more suitable for older readers as it is based on the author's grandparents love story. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama is sent to live in a War Relocation Centre in the desert and she works in the camp's library. There she meets George.

And if these two days are not enough celebration, it is also Clifford the Big Red Dog's birthday. The students I teach Love the large Clifford toy in the library. He gets plenty of hugs and on the occasions when we do a Clifford display the books, although old are still borrowed. I'll put some out this week.

13th February Winter Olympics

It is Summer in Australia and it has been extremely hot and humid at times, so the students at school are not giving a lot of thought to winter sports although many of them do ski.  Australia has not yet won a medal at the games and many of the sports being contested, the students have never heard of. Nevertheless, yesterday my friend who was helping in the library thought to do a small display of books about winter sports. We had four nonfiction titles about skiing, snowboarding and iceskating...not much. That got me thinking there must be more.

Well there is so I can now expand the display to include some picture book fiction.

Skiing:

Iceskating:

And some chapter books: