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:

13th February World Radio Day

Proclaimed in 2011 World Radio Day marks the day United Nations Radio was established in 1946.  Radio was once one of the most incredible technologies on Earth – used by militaries and governments alike for navigation, news distribution, and more. It made news and music more accessible and brought us closer as a nation and a planet. Though today we rely more heavily on the internet and television for what we once relied on radio for, radio is far from dead and increasingly appreciated for its vintage and fantastic content.

Radio is a powerful medium for celebrating humanity in all its diversity and constitutes a platform for democratic discourse. At the global level, radio remains the most widely consumed medium. Radio is a low-cost medium specifically suited to reaching remote communities and vulnerable people, offering a platform to intervene in the public debate, irrespective of people’s educational level. It also plays a crucial role in emergency communication and disaster relief.

The radio has provided entertainment, news, comfort, and information and united people both near and far ever since Guglielmo Marconi invented it in 1895.

There is very little in the school library that will help celebrate this day. Of course, Marconi will be included in books about inventors but we do not have a picture book biography about him.

Read these instead:

• Radio Rescue  by Jane Jolly and Robert Ingpen. Jim and his family live happily on their remote outback station. Yet, sometimes Jim feels lonely. Jim's Dad enjoys droving and shearing his sheep but sometimes he wishes he could chat to a mate. Jim's Mum is always busy with the accounts and looking after the chooks, but she sometimes worries about being so far away from everything—what would happen if someone got sick? Then a strange new radio with pedals arrives and Jim's Mum and Dad can send messages to their neighbours. Jim wants to have a go! Fascinating factual information at the back of the book explains how the pedal radio worked and how the Flying Doctor and the School of the Air developed as a result.

• Radio Rescue  by Lynne Barasch 

In the 1920s...a long-distance telephone call can take hours.  An overseas call is not possible at all.  But there is a new invention, called wireless radio, that permits instant communication over long distances. This book tells the story of one boy and how he became an amateur radio operator just for fun, but also got to use his skill for something more important.

• Radio Boy  by Sharon Phillips Denslow and Alec Gilman

This is a fictionalised account of the childhood of Nathan Stubblefield, who patented several inventions, the young boy fixes his neighbour's new telephone.

•  A Fox Found a Box by Ged Adamson

A little fox is digging for food when--OUCH! What is that?--the fox finds a box! When the fox brings the box home to his animal friends--and turns a funny-looking knob--the box starts to sing, and music fills the forest. Everyone agrees that it feels nice. Day and night, they listen to the box's songs, until, one day, it goes quiet. No matter what they try, they just can't get the box to sing again. The animals stop swishing their tails and flapping their wings...

9th - 15th February National Lunchbox Week

 

National Lunchbox Week is a Nutrition Australia campaign that aims to inspire Australian families to create enjoyable and nourishing lunchboxes.

Throughout the campaign we’re celebrating the lunchbox and how it reflects diversity, enjoyment and nourishment.​ Encouraging enjoyable and pressure free lunchbox experiences supports children’s wellbeing and helps build a positive relationship with food. 

National Lunchbox Week occurs at the start of Term 1 providing timely information for families as they return to the routine of daily lunchbox packing.

If you look on the website you will find amazing things...recipes for parents, posters and activities for teachers and classrooms. Take your students on a Lunchbox Week journey, when you choose from four fun and engaging classroom adventures 

• Lunchboxes Around the World

• The Fantastic Five

• Build the Rainbow

• Reading Adventure

And here's some books from the library to help with these activities: