9th - 13th November World Nursery Rhyme Week

World Nursery Rhyme Week is an annual celebration of nursery rhymes and the important role they play in supporting early childhood development and education. In 2026, World Nursery Rhyme Week runs from 9th – 13th November. 

Each year, World Nursery Rhyme Week selects five rhymes and runs a ‘Rhyme a Day’ challenge that invites pre-school settings to encourage their pupils to learn and sing one of the rhymes each day. 

The rhymes have been chosen to support development across key areas such as vocabulary, language and literacy skills; numeracy skills; and fine and gross motor development. The 2026 rhymes are:

• Hickory Dickory Dock
• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive
• Doctor Foster Went to Gloucester
• Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat
• Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Find a good anthology of nursery rhymes such as the Iona Opie ones that are illustrated by Rosemary Wells, but there are other very comprehensive ones.

Many nursery rhymes also come in stand alone picture or board books, eg

When I meet with my preschool classes I have noticed though, that they do not know their nursery rhymes like they used to and if the picture book I'm sharing with them relies on knowledge of a nursery rhyme I need to do more scaffolding than I had planned. I will say the nursery rhyme and ask the students to join in, sing it, do actions etc and then go back to the book. The library has many stories that spoof nursery rhymes eg.

8th November Diwali

Diwali, or Dipawali, is India's biggest and most important holiday of the year. The festival gets its name from the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolise the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness. This festival is as important to Hindus as the Christmas holiday is to Christians.

DIWALI IS CELEBRATED OVER FIVE DAYS.

• DAY ONE: People clean their homes and shop for gold or kitchen utensils to help bring good fortune.
• DAY TWO: People decorate their homes with clay lamps and create design patterns called rangoli on the floor using colored powders or sand.
• DAY THREE: On the main day of the festival, families gather together for Lakshmi puja, a prayer to Goddess Lakshmi, followed by mouth-watering feasts and firework festivities.
• DAY FOUR: This is the first day of the new year, when friends and relatives visit with gifts and best wishes for the season.
• DAY FIVE: Brothers visit their married sisters, who welcome them with love and a lavish meal.

I have written about Diwali several times with suggested picture books to read.

The students at school love making patterns called rangoli on the floor using coloured chalks or sand. This was originally inspired by this book.

but there are other books, including two new ones.

8th November International Day of Radiology, World Radiography Day

The International Day of Radiology will take place on 8th November for the fifteenth time, with the aim of building greater awareness of the value that radiology contributes to safe patient care and improving public understanding of the vital role radiologists and radiographers play in the healthcare continuum.

The day commemorates the discovery of X-rays by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen on November 8, 1895. Röntgen's discovery was accidental. He  was investigating the behaviour of cathode rays—streams of electrons generated inside a vacuum tube known as a Hittorf-Crookes tube. To focus on the rays themselves, he wrapped the glass tube tightly in heavy black cardboard to block all visible light.

After darkening the room and applying a high-voltage electrical current to the tube, he noticed a faint, green shimmering light a few feet away. The glow was coming from a paper screen coated with barium platinocyanide. Because the tube was completely shielded by thick black paper, Röntgen realized that some unknown, invisible ray was passing right through the cardboard and causing the screen to fluoresce. Because its nature was a complete mystery, he temporarily dubbed it the "X-ray" (using the mathematical symbol 'X' for an unknown variable).

Within months, physicians worldwide were building their own unpatented X-ray setups to locate bullets, diagnose bone fractures, and track disease.In 1901, Röntgen was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in Physics for his monumental discovery.

Röntgen firmly believed that his discoveries belonged to humanity. He refused to patent the technology, declined a title of nobility, and famously donated his Nobel Prize prize money to his employer, the University of Wurzburg. 

The students I teach are fascinated by bones and X-rays and I never seem to have enough books to satisfy their needs. We do have:

and we need to get

3rd November World Jellyfish Day

 

Celebrating World Jellyfish Day makes sense as it is an invertebrate that has been on this earth for millions of years, longer than humans.

World Jellyfish Day has been slated to fall in the springtime in the southern hemisphere, as this is the season when jellyfish will begin their migration to the shores of the northern hemisphere. 

Jellyfish do not have central nervous systems. Instead, they use a loose network of nerves to sense touch, light, and changes in the water. Their bell-shaped body has only one opening that serves a dual purpose. They take in food and expel waste through the exact same hole.

As it is Nonfiction November I thought it would make sense to display all the wonderful information books about jellyfish. See these more recent ones:

And a biography

Maude Delap scoops a jellyfish out of the water and embarks on more than a year of observation of the animal, accomplishing something countless other scientists were unable to do: trace the life cycle of a jellyfish and understand the creature's metamorphosis from larva to adult.  Her painstaking observations of a compass jellyfish in 1899-1900 laid the foundation for research still ongoing today.

For more book titles see here.

For other blog entries about this day see here and here.

1st November Brush Day

In America National Brush Day is celebrated annually on1st November, immediately following Halloween, to promote good oral hygiene and remind children and families to brush for two minutes, twice a day. That's a good choice of day!

There are lots of opportunities in the year to think about oral hygiene and teeth.

National Dentist Day is 6th March.

World Oral Health Day is on 20th March.

Dental Health Week is celebrated in Australia at the beginning of August. This year 3rd - 9th August.

Then there's Tooth Fairy Day on 28th February and again on 22nd August and False Teeth Day on the 9th March.

There are so many board books for toddlers that focus on teeth brushing, but at the school library we have more scientific books about why brushing teeth is a good idea.

Last week in the run up to Halloween I read The Scariest Monster in the World  by Lee Weatherly to a preschool class and all they could talk about afterwards was the monster's green teeth. So many of them pointed out the fact that he needed to brush his teeth.

The newest book in the library about teeth brushing is this lighthearted one:

This book, My Toothbrush is Missing  by Jan Thomas is fun!

And this one,  A Tale of a Toothbrush  by M.G.Leonard has a much more serious message.

Nonfiction November

Founded by Adam Lancaster and organised by the Federation of Children's Book Groups, this annual event promotes factual reading for pleasure among children and young people. The whole month now celebrates all those readers that have a passion for information and facts and attempts to bring non fiction celebration in line with those of fiction.

This year’s theme is ‘Reading is an Adventure’. It will be encouraging children and young people to use non-fiction books in the outside world – not just to read them, but to use the information in a more practical way. For example, read a book about bugs and then be inspired to go on your own bug hunt. Another example could be to read about learning a skill and then doing the skill, or read about a place then go to it. The topics will be Bugs, Animals, People, Places, Nature, and Adventures at Home.

The Federation of Children's Book Group has a suggested reading list here, but you do not have to stick to their books. You can do a display that includes your own suggestions. Nonfiction books have changed greatly in the time I have been a teacher librarian. 

The internet has meant that there is less of the traditional nonfiction book that was used for research. They had short titles that told you what the book was about, photographs, contents pages, an index and a glossary. Now there is much more browsable nonfiction with superb illustrations. 

I have written about this month before here and made several suggestions as to authors and illustrators who do wonderful nonfiction. The Read and Wonder series, now known as Nature Storybooks are also examples of great nonfiction for young children.

Back to the bug theme...I'm going to include these in a display:

The Big Book of Bugs  by Yuval Zimmer

The Book of Brilliant Bugs  by Jess French and Claire McElfatrick

There are Bugs Everywhere  by Britta Teckentrup

Big Book of Bugs by  Theresa Greenaway

Leaf Litter  by Rachel Tonkin

Backyard  by Ananda Braxton-Smith and Lizzy Newcomb

and these