8th September International Literacy Day

UNESCO founded the International Literacy Day in 1966 to highlight the necessity of literacy to access fundamental human rights. It's defined as "the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials".

The relationship between education and poverty is clear, as illiterate people have more chances to face poverty, health problems, and isolation due to our growing dependence on computers.

Still today, there are 773 million young people and adults worldwide with very low literacy skills. 

The theme this year is  “Promoting literacy in the digital era.”

Digitalisation has been changing ways in which we learn, live, work and socialise, in both positive and negative ways, depending on how we engage with it. While digital tools can help expand learning opportunities for marginalised groups, including 739 million young people and adults who lack basic literacy skills, this digital shift also risks creating double marginalisation – exclusion not only from traditional literacy learning but also from the benefits of the digital age.

For the children I teach who do have the opportunity to be very literate, perhaps today is a good day to look at children's lives in other parts of the world or combine it with World Lit Month activities. September is World Kid Lit Month, the time to explore international books for young people. It’s the perfect time to read a children’s book from or set in another country, or a book translated into English from another language.

This Bingo type card is the suggestion for Early Childhood reading this month. If you are not sure what to read check Pinterest, Google the continent and picture books or ask your teacher librarian or public librarian.

Read Brightly suggestions.

Read Around the World suggestions.

Read Around the World 50 picture book suggestions.

6th September World Shorebirds Day

Shorebirds are a diverse group of birds that include about 217 recognized species worldwide! Many are long-distance migrants, traveling millions of kilometres each year. They are found around sandy beaches, rocky coastlines, freshwater wetlands, grasslands, and even flooded agricultural lands, feeding on mollusks, marine worms, and insects. The Shorebird Conservation Society aims to highlight the difficulties shorebird populations face to the public, take action to identify and protect natural habitats and  partner with local NGOs for conservation.

Shorebirds are also called “waders” and they make up about 10% of Australia's bird species. They are a group of birds that wade in shallow water and look for food on coastal mudflats, estuaries and along the edges of inland wetlands.

Australia has over 50 species of shorebirds. There are resident species, which means they stay here all year and breed on many of Australia's beaches. There are also 37 migratory species regularly seen in Australia. See Wingthreads website for more amazing statistics.

Yesterday I had a long walk along the shore just south of Sydney and the beach and the nearby wetlands had a lot of birds to wonder about, but shorebirds are the world's most endangered group of bird species.

Shorebirds come with great names...sandpiper; oystercatcher; curlew; plover; stint; spoonbill; sanderling; godwit; avocet; snipe; shearwater; and dotterel. See the Shorebird Identification charts.

Time for a book display and some reading!

• The Best Beak of Boonaroo Bay  by Narelle Oliver

Pelican announces that he will adjudicate contest between the shorebirds. Each water bird – spoonbill, darter, oyster catcher and more compete. As each one is awarded a gold medal, the ‘wise old pelican’ turns its yellow eye upwards and towards the reader to share the joke - which is, of course, that fit-for-purpose is always best.

• Beach Birds  by Bridget Farmer

This book invites children to guess 12 Australian coastal birds through playful rhymes and hidden flaps. Each page features a riddle and an illustration; lift the flap to reveal the bird name hiding beneath.

• A Shorebird Flying Adventure  by Jackie Kevin and Milly Formby

This book takes you on a trip to the Arctic tundra and back. On the way you’ll meet the birds who travel phenomenal distances every year and explore their precious wetland habitats and breeding grounds. Learn fascinating facts about their diet and find out Milly’s top tips to tell one species from another. 

• Windcatcher  by Diane Jackson Hill and Craig Smith

A short-tailed shearwater flies from the edge of the Southern Ocean to the rim of the Arctic Circle – and back – every year. This remarkable 30,000 kilometre journey is driven by seabird law.

• Circle  by Jeannie Baker 

This is the story of the little-known Bar-tailed Godwit who, following invisible pathways that have been used for thousands of years, undertakes the longest unbroken migration of any bird, a total of 11,000 kilometres, flying from their breeding grounds in Alaska across the Pacific Ocean to Australia or New Zealand. 

• The Godwits  by Bruce Pickworth and Lorraine Robertson

A thought-provoking visualisation of the plight of the migratory Bar-tailed Godwits due to habitat depletion. Harnessing dual perspectives through the voice of young Goa Wei living on the coast of China’s Yellow Sea and Gowie, a young godwit who leads the flock from their summer roost in Shoalhaven Heads, in New South Wales. 

5th September International Day of Charity; Feast Day St 'Mother' Teresa

What is charity?

Charity is the voluntary provision of assistance to those in need. It serves as a humanitarian act, and is unmotivated by self-interest. 

In most general situations, people define charity as giving resources like money and time to a greater cause without expecting anything in return. The purpose of charity, or selfless giving, is aimed to serve the most vulnerable groups in society, helping them ensure that their basic needs and human rights are met.

In Christian theology, charity (Latin: caritas) is considered one of the seven virtues.

Charity is a hard concept to explain to the young students I teach. They do not think about giving money unless they get something in return and unfortunately quite a few of the charitable things that schools engage in like Jump Rope for Heart, Jellybeans for Diabetes, or Jeans for Genes Day do provide things in exchange for raising or giving money and therefore really do not constitute selfless giving.

The International Day of Charity is celebrated every year on  5th September. It honours the anniversary of Mother Teresa's passing. It was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012. The day serves to increase and enhance social responsibility across the entire world, increasing our support for charitable causes and bringing everyone together in solidarity. 

Reading about people such as Mother Teresa who was involved in giving selflessly to vulnerable people will help children to understand what this day is about. Mother Teresa, the renowned nun and missionary, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 in   In 1928 she went to India, where she devoted herself to helping the destitute.  In 1948 she became an Indian citizen and founded the order of Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950, which became noted for its work among the poor and the dying in that city. Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 “for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace.”

With very young children it might be easier to talk about giving and generosity rather than charity and books can help with this too.

These two biographies highlight two people who have given so much to help others

• Jose Feeds the World  by Marta Álvarez Miguéns 

The true story of Jose Andres, an award-winning chef, food activist, and founder of World Central Kitchen, a disaster-relief organization that uses the power of food to nourish communities after catastrophe strikes.

•  Food is Hope  by Jeff Gottesfeld

Hunger continues to be an international problem. This true story of how one ordinary person did something extraordinary shows how everyone can do something to make a difference.  John van Hengel's ingenious, yet obvious solution to both food waste and widespread hunger.

These will also help you start a conversation about giving:

4th September International Vulture Awareness Day

International Vulture Awareness Day shines a spotlight on the highly important yet vastly misunderstood birds – vultures.

Often misunderstood, vultures are the silent sentinels of our natural world. These remarkable creatures are nature’s cleaners, ecosystem guardians, flying giants, and devoted parents.

These remarkable birds play a vital role in maintaining sustainable and healthy ecosystems. By efficiently consuming carcasses and organic waste, vultures likely prevent the spread of deadly diseases that could devastate wildlife, livestock, and even people.

Vultures are facing a global crisis – they need our help to make a recovery. Vulture populations worldwide are experiencing catastrophic declines due to various threats, including direct and indirect poisoning, illegal killing, and electrocutions or collisions with power lines. 

Vultures are birds of prey who scavenge on carrion (the flesh of decaying animals carrion).There are Old World vultures which are native to  Africa, Asia and Europe. Then there are New World vultures that are native to North and South America. There are no vultures in Australia or Antarctica.

A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald, unfeathered head. This bare skin is thought to keep the head clean when feeding.

Vultures have three collective nouns allocated to them. A group of vultures in flight is called a "kettle", while the term "committee" refers to a group of vultures resting on the ground or in trees. A group of vultures that are feeding is termed a "wake".

There are not a lot of picture books about vultures, but my young students get interested in vultures because of these two books which feature a vulture.

The library has these stories:

• Vulture View  by April Pulley Sayre and Steve Jenkins

Turkey vultures are best known for being nature’s clean-up crew, but did you know they’re among the most graceful soaring birds on earth? Come spend a day in the life of a vulture and learn how they fly on thermals of warmed air, preen their feathers to stay squeaky clean, keep up their scavenger diet—and so much more. 

• The Sulky Vulture  by Sally Grindley and Michael Terry

Boris is a very sulky vulture - nothing ever goes quite right for him! When his friends try to take his mind off things and cheer him up, everything goes wrong: the swing he is swinging on breaks, he can't find the zebra in hide and seek, he ends up with a rhino chasing him when he plays catch. Even when mum offers him a hug he's still not happy. Some vultures are never pleased!

• Condor's Egg  by Jonathan London and James Chaffee

The story of a family of California Condors and their struggle to survive while their habitat is being destroyed, told in a carefully researched text accompanied by information on helping preserve the Condor. Condor is the common name for  two species of New World vultures.

Your library might also have :

• Vultures, a Love Story  by Karen Schaufeld and Kurt Schwarz

Little Igor, a vulture, was born with a limp and an unusual feather sticking up from his otherwise bald head. This tale is about appreciating our differences and our skills, and recognizing that we all deserve love.

There are some information books with good photographs:

31st August Maria Montessori

It is Maria Montessori's birthday. She was born in Italy in 1870 and died at age 81 in 1952. In 1890 Montessori enrolled at the University of Rome to study physics, mathematics and natural sciences, receiving her diploma two years later. This enabled her to enter the Faculty of Medicine, as one of the first women in Italy, and the first to study at the University of Rome. Montessori stood out not just because of her gender, but because she was actually intent on mastering the subject matter. As part of her work as a doctor she saw a lot of poor people and children.

In 1900 the National League , a "medico-pedagogical institute" for training teachers in educating children with learning difficulties, with an attached laboratory classroom. Montessori was appointed co-director.

In 1906, Montessori was invited to oversee the care and education of a group of children of working parents in a new apartment building for low-income families in the San Lorenzo district in Rome. Montessori, occupied with teaching, research, and other professional activities, oversaw and observed the classroom work, but did not teach the children directly. 

In this first classroom, Montessori observed behaviours in these young children which formed the foundation of her educational method. She noted episodes of deep attention and concentration, multiple repetitions of activity, and a sensitivity to order in the environment. Given a free choice of activity, the children showed more interest in practical activities and Montessori's materials than in toys provided for them and were surprisingly unmotivated by sweets and other rewards. Over time, she saw a spontaneous self-discipline emerge.

Maria Montessori believed in the creative potential of every child - and she developed a brand-new approach to education, building on the way children naturally learn. Montessori Schools still exist in many places including Australia.

Even if you know nothing about Montessori Education , today is a good day to read a biography of this amazing woman who was a trailblazer in her time.

31st August Vegetable Day

How familiar you are with a food is a crucial indicator of whether you are likely to eat it. This is the case not only for children but for adults too.

Birch, L. & Marlin, D. M (1982). “I don't like it; I never tried it: Effects of exposure on two-year-old children's food preferences” Appetite Accessed on 26th November 2020 

 So, the easiest way to combat food neophobia in children is to make food more familiar. Ideally, familiarity arises through exposing children to new foods multiple times and through different recipes – if a child can be persuaded to taste an initially rejected food on multiple occasions, the evidence suggests that the food will eventually be accepted. 

Reading picture books that feature vegetables will quickly mean that children will at least know what they look like before they taste them. Many picture books make vegetables easy to identify with and good fun. I'm sure that is why my students love Supertato books and the Runaway Pea  series.

Last week Cate James visited the students I teach and her newest book is this one written by Jo Dabrowski. It is written in a letter format. 

Dear Broccoli,

Last night at dinner you were on my plate. AGAIN. 

Please don't come back. 

From, Frank. 

Dear Frank, 

I am afraid I cannot grant your request. The matter is out of my florets. 

Most respectful regards, 

Broccoli 

This will make children laugh, even those who do not like broccoli. It is surprising how many books there actually are that feature broccoli.

• Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks and Sue Hendra

• There's Broccoli in My Ice Cream!  by Emily MacKenzie

• a series of easy graphic readers about Cookie and Broccoli  by Bob McMahon

• Nelson: Broccoli and Spies  by Andrew Levins

Similarly, there are several books about carrots

• Too Many Carrots  by Katy Hudson

• Colin and Lee Carrot and Pea  by Morag Hood

• Oh, Carrots!  by  Mariajo Illustrajo  

• Creepy Carrots  by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown

• Lottie and Dottie Sow Carrots  by Claire Burgess

Peas

• Give Peas a Chance  by Rob Biddulph

• The Princess and the Peas  by Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton

• The Princess and the Peas and the Carrots  by Harriet Ziefert 

• More Peas Please!  by Tom McLaughlin

• The Runaway Pea  by Kjartan Poskitt

Zucchini

• Zora's Zucchini  by Katherine Pryor and Anna Raff

Spinach

• Sylvia's Spinach  by Katherine Pryor and Anna Raff

Radishes

• Rah, Rah, Radishes!  by April Pulley Sayre

Lettuce

• For the Love of Lettuce by Courtney Dicmas

Strictly speaking tomatoes and avocados are fruit not vegetables so not included here.

Various other single vegetable books.