28th March Skipping Day

Our school is a 'big' skipping school. We take part in Jump Rope for Heart and the kindergarten teachers make a point of teaching their children to skip each year and giving them time during most days to do some skipping before the big event. Last year the teachers told the children they would come to school in their pyjamas if they raised a certain amount of money. It was a very large amount and I don't think the teachers thought it would ever happen, but it did! So school in pyjamas happened.

So when I read it was Skipping Day in England today I thought I would investigate what they did in the way of skipping. It turns out that it is not a fundraising day, but purely about children, fun and good aerobic exercise. Schools can register, just like our Jump Rope and take part in activities that are planned and conducted by visitors to the school.

Today as I was putting Olive and the Big Secret  by Tor Freeman back on the shelf, I noticed that Olive always seems to have a skipping rope in her hands and then I went to the catalogue to see what other books could be used to  encourage skipping. There were three:
• Hop, Skip and Jump, Maisy!  by Lucy Cousins
• Ready, Set, Skip!  by Jane O'Connor and Ann James
• Elsie Piddock Skips in her Sleep  by Eleanor Farejon and Charlotte Voake.

And then two books with skipping rhymes:
• One Two Skip a Few by Roberta Arenson
• Schoolyard Rhymes by Judy Sierra and Melissa Sweet

And don't forget all those rhymes from your childhood like Cinderella dressed in yella, went upstairs...; Miss Mary Mack all dressed in black...; Teddy bear, teddy bear... etc  all collected together by June factor in Australia and Roger Abrahams in the USA.

26th March Purple Day

Purple Day is an international day dedicated to increasing awareness about epilepsy.

Do you need an excuse to revisit Harold and the Purple Crayon and to have fun drawing with purple? Well here it is. Get out the library's many copies of this classic book and its spin-offs and have a purple day!  While you're at it here are two other 'purple' books to add to the fun.

And if you need to explain epilepsy to children the series that stars the Great Katie Kate has a book about epilepsy.

11th March Fun with Snails

Year 1 at school are having fun studying minibeasts. They combine a science unit with an author study of Eric Carle focussing mostly on his wonderful minibeast books ... The Very Hungry Caterpillar; The Very Busy Spider; The Bad-tempered Ladybird (or The Grouchy Ladybug); The Very Lonely Firefly; The Very Clumsy Click Beetle;  The Very Quiet Cricket  and  The Honey Bee and the Robber.

They have spent a lot of time observing minibeasts and one class had a large collection of snails. On the weekend the snails escaped their 'container' and went exploring. While they were out they also must have been hungry because when the children arrived at school on Monday they found that the snails had eaten a substantial amount of paper in two books ... Clementine by Sebastian Loth and Snails  by Monica Hughes. The children thought it so funny that they had eaten only books about snails!

When I found out I dug out an old and tattered copy of Snail Mail by Hazel Edwards and Rod Clement for the teacher to share. In this story the snails in the mail box eat letters and this has actually happened in my mail box! When I have read it the children always say that couldn't happen. This class knows that it could!