The first Sunday in July is Build a Scarecrow Day, not something I have any experience of, but would like to, because it looks like fun. Recently a teacher came to the library to borrow a 'book with straw' in it. She had been sharing The Three Little Pigs and the class were going to construct buildings from straw, sticks and bricks. The children had asked lots of questions about straw and she wanted more resources to share with them. Well where to start? I looked in books about farms, found scarecrows and then went looking for more books with scarecrows and came up with a few. Our city children had little knowledge of straw or scarecrows.
Reading up on them I found that they have existed for a long time and that many farming communities have festivals where children can enjoy making them. This little book, How To Make a Scarecrow by Kim Wilde which is part of the Collins Big Cat Readers is textless but has lots of pictorial inspiration. Ken Brown seems to draw the best scarecrows in picture books. In my library I found The Scarecrow's Hat by him and Tattybogle by Sandra Horn and Ken Brown both of which gave the children some ideas about straw and what it could be used for.
No comments:
Post a Comment