21st May World Meditation Day

This year World Meditation Day is being celebrated today the 21st May. It was Open Day at school with masses of visitors and very hard to keep students focussed. However, I bravely tried out  Meditate With Me and My Magic Breath with a preschool class and was pleasantly surprised. It is a large group of children and they can be quite noisy. We breathed in and out. We scrunched up our bodies, wiggled our fingers and used our magic breath beautifully. I would happily use these two books again.

The library has a large collection of books on mindfulness. See here.

25th May International Tap Dancing Day

Recently, a friend, a fellow-teacher who has taken up dancing classes since she retired told me that as well as the ballet class she was taking, she had decided to do a tap class as well. I thought about how many of the small children I taught went to dancing lessons. We have a large collection of books about ballet, a few on dance but what did we have about tap dancing?  I went looking and found only four.
* Tallulah's Tap Shoes by Marilyn Singer. This lovely picture book is part of a series about Tallulah and her love of dancing.
* The Impossible Shoelaces  by Ed Allen and Nathaniel Ekstrom. Here Caterpillar really wants to learn to tie his shoelaces so that he can tap dance!
* The Tip-Tap Dancing Cat by Joanna Boyle

* Don't Tap-Dance on Your Teacher Book 5 in a series of beginning chapter books Roscoe Riley Rules by Katherine Applegate.

Held annually, International TAP Dancing Day is on the 25th May each year.

24th May Escargot Day

Escargot Day is observed each year on May 24th. This day is in honour of the famous French dish of cooked land snails. Escargot is French for edible snails, an acquired taste that was popular in French restaurants in the past, but not so much now. I couldn't find when Snail Day was celebrated so decided to put together a display of 'snail' books to honour the 24th. The students at my school learn French and we have an abundance of wonderful books which feature snails, so why not?

If you are doing this too, start with these picture books:
• Escargot by Dashka Slater & Sydney Hansen. This is such fun and can be found here on Youtube if you don't have a copy of the book.
• Snails Legs by Damian Harvey and Korky Paul
• Super Snail by Elys Dolan
• Snails Are Just My Speed by Kevin McCloskey
• Snail Trail by Ruth Brown
• The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• The Story of Fish and Snail by Deborah Freedman
• The Biggest House in the World by Leo Lionni
• Snail and Turtle Are Friends and Snail and Turtle Rainy Days  by Stephen Michael King
• Matisse's Magical Trail by Tim Hopgood and Sam Boughton 
• Snippet the Early Riser by Bethanie Deeney Murguia
• Clementine by Sebastian Loth
• Sylvia  by Christine Sharp


Just a few information books:
• Watch Out Snail! by Gail Hay
• Let's Look at Snails by Michelle Levine
• Snail-Snaily-Snails by Bonnie Bader
' Here are some chapter books worth looking for:
• Snail and Worm by Tina Kugler (this is a series)
• Annie's Snails by Dianne Wolfer
• The Adventurous Snail by Dick King Smith
• Sophie's Snail by Dick King Smith (this is one of six Sophie adventures)
• The Worst Child I Ever Had  by Anne Fine
• The Story of a Snail Who Discovered the Importance of Being Slow by Luis Sepulveda



And for fun look for these two art books
• Snail Trail: A Journey through Modern Art by Jo Saxton
• How the Snail Found It's Colours by Jeong-Yi Kee

18th May International Learn to Swim Day

International Learn to Swim Day is the perfect opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of teaching children to 

International Learn to Swim Day in May is designed to draw attention to the fact that every child needs to know how to swim and it aims to  heighten awareness of the importance of learning to swim and be water-safe.

In Australia we are heading into Winter not Summer.  Though to be fair, many Australian children swim all year round as swimming squads do run through Winter and often occur in indoor pools. Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children.

Teaching children to swim is high on the list of things my parents ask for books on, especially the ones with preschoolers who don't like the water or those of children who are not careful around water. 

Lottie and Walter by Anna Walker  is a new book, but perfect for reading with a child who is reticent about swimming and or giving it a go.  Heather Fell in the Water by Doug MacLeod is perfect for the other extreme. Heather is continually falling in water and her parents decide she will need to wear waterings (floaties) all the time.

Below is a list of books  in the library which will help encourage learning to swim.
Two factual books
* Learning Swimming by Katrin Barth
* Swimming  by Nick Rebman, and then lots of stories where children can see themselves, laugh at others and explore what to do next.

* The Magic Moment  by Niall Breslin
* George Goes Swimming by Nicola Smee
* Peppa Goes Swimming
* Topsy and Tim Learn to Swim by Jean Adamson
* Maisie Learns to Swim by Lucy Cousins
* Edward's First Swimming Party by Rosemary Wells
* Froggy Learns to Swim by Jonathan London
* Grug Learns to Swim  by Ted Prior
* Ruby Learns to Swim by Phillip Gwynne



* A Swim in the Sea by Sue Whiting
* Echidna Jim Went for a Swim by Phil Cummings
* Saturday is Swimming Day by Hyewon Yum
* Little by Little by Amber Stewart
* The Deep End  by Rebecca Patterson

* Clem Always Could by Sarah Watt
* Lollipop and Grandpa Go Swimming by Penelope Harper
* Grandpa's Big Adventure by Paul Newman
* The Deep by Tim Winton
* Mona the Champion by Sonia Holleyman







And some short chapter books to keep the swimmers interested
* Horrid Henry's Swimming Lesson  by Francesca Simon
* The Deep End by Ursula Dubosarsky
* Ella and Olivia Little Lifesavers by Yvette Poshoglian
* Diary of a Super Swimmer by Shamini Flint
* Sporty Kids: Swimming by Felice Arena