23rd March International Day of the Seal

Oops, I missed this day. We have done seal displays in the library before, but it must have never been as a celebration of this day, but rather just as a popular topic with children. I have become fascinated by seals since I saw two a couple of weeks ago swimming in Sydney Harbour. They were very entertaining, really playing up to the bystanders filming them on their phones.

A seal is a type of animal called a pinniped, which is Latin for “fin-footed.” Other pinnipeds include the walrus and sea lion. What makes seals different from other pinnipeds is that they don’t really use their flippers to walk. When on land, they usually slide around on their bellies. In the water, their flippers help them swim really fast. Seals are also much quieter and smaller than their sea lion and walrus cousins.

This helped me to know the difference between seals and sea lions, who have their own days of celebration. World Sea Lion Day is 30th May and World Walrus Day is on 24th November.

Five seal stories to recommend:

 

Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman

A boy and his grandfather watch as a baby seal is born on the rocks near their home and from that day a special friendship is created between them.

Found  by Sam Usher

It's a warm summer's day, so Boy and his grandad pack up their provisions and head for the seaside.  There's so much to do, from exploring rock pools to building a magnificent sandcastle. But their day takes a different turn when they go for a swim and find a baby seal caught up in a net. Its rescue leads Boy and Grandad on a thrilling underwater adventure! 

Saving Seal  by Diane Jackson Hill and Craig Smith

Seal has made his home in the waters of a coastal village, but he often finds himself trapped and ensnared in the plastic rubbish filling the Bay. Fortunately, he is rescued by Lizzie and Grandpa Dave. 

Sydney the Seal Saves the Sea  by Andrea Reitmeyer

When Sydney meets a new buddy, they decide to embark on an adventure, exploring the ocean. During their journey, the two friends discover that their beautiful home is covered in litter. The two companions seek help from nearby humans, who vow to help keep the ocean clean for Sydney's animal family. 

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas  by Lynne Cox and Brian Floca

Based on a true story about an elephant seal - an animal that normally prefers the wilds of the Southern Ocean - who defied the odds and gained fame when she persisted in returning to Christchurch's Avon River, time and again, to make herself at home on the banks of the river and to bask in the sun in the middle of busy roads. 

While these might be my picks, you will find more on my Pinterest.

31st March Crayon Day

It's Crayon Day!   

I felt sure I had written about this day before, but I can't find where. Because we put together a creative display for Scribble Day many of our crayon books are already on loan or on display. 

Origin of Crayons

Unfortunately, the origin of crayons is somewhat blurry when looking at pertinent historical accounts. However, the word itself came from the combination of two Latin words which are “crale” (chalk) and creta (earth). Crayons are made by combining different pigments with oil. This practice has been done for thousands of years. It has been done by different cultures including Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians. However, such crayons were used only by artists and not by children at home and at school. The reason is that such crayons made before contain compounds that may be harmful to children, especially when ingested. The breakthrough in crayons came with the crayon produced by Joseph Lemercier back in 1828. Instead of using oil, he used wax for producing crayons.

During the 20th century, more and more crayons were produced in the USA. In 1902, Edwin Binney and Harold Smith invented the Crayola brand of crayons and now children have access to a number of different types of crayons.

If you want to find out more about crayons, the library has these books:

Here's the true story of an inventor who so loved nature's vibrant colours that he found a way to bring the outside world to children - in a bright green box for only a nickel! With experimentation, and a special knack for listening, Edwin Binney and his dynamic team at Crayola created one of the world's most enduring, best-loved childhood toys.

How does wax turn into a colorful crayon? Follow each step in the production cycle--from melting wax into a liquid to coloring a fun picture.

Join Buddy, every first-grader's favorite Weekly Reader pal, as he goes behind the scenes at interesting real-life places where people do interesting real-life work. What Happens at a Crayon Factory? takes readers inside a real factory to see how crayons are made. 

There are lots of stories, starting with the ever so popular series about crayons by Drew Daywalt that started with The Day the Crayons Quit and the ubiquitous Harold's Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson Here's some others:

• Red: A Crayons Story  by Michael Hall

• Frankencrayon  by Michael Hall

• The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane Derolf and Michael Letzig

• Creepy Crayon  by Aaron Reynolds

• My Crayons Talk by Patricia Hubbard and Brian Karas

• A Day With No Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch and Chad Cameron

• The Magic Crayon  by Amy Sparkes and Ali Pie

• Pete the Cat; Crayons Rock  by James Dean and Kimberly Dean

• Crayon  by Simon Rickerty

• Gurple and Preen  by Linda Sue Park and Debbie Ridpath Ohi

• Crayon Road  by Joni Jong and Joy Cowley

• The Last Crayon by Fifi Colston

• The Life of a Crayon: A Colourful Story of Neverending Beginnings  by Christopher Willard and Holly Clifton-Brown 

• Blackie, the Crayon by Miwa Nakaya

• Allie All Along by Sarah Lynne Reul

• How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow by Monica Sweeney and Feronia Parker-Thomas

2nd April Geologists Day

For many people, geology could be considered an underappreciated science. This may be especially true when it is compared to other sciences such as physics, biology or chemistry, but if you are dealing with five to eight year olds like I do geology is probably their favourite science. They come to library after lunch with a rock in their pocket that they found on the playground or in the garden and ask what is this? I empathise with them because I loved rocks as a child. My father was a science teacher who was besotted with rocks. We'd be on a family holiday and he would stop the car and get us four children out of the car to look at some geological marvel. It may have been a plug, a cirque, a moraine, an incline/syncline in a cutting, shale, mica or some other unusual rock we hadn't seen up close. 

Geology is the study of the composition of rocks, soils and other natural materials. It is also the science of the Earth's physical structure and its life recorded in rocks. It has been around since Ancient Greek times. Rocks tell stories. The books on rocks, crystals and fossils are always borrowed especially if we do a display.

So it's time to put together a book display about everything to do with geology , including the historical geologists that have helped people understand our world better. 

Start with something general and then explore the 552 area of your library.

These are some of the popular ones in our library:

Looking for biographies? Try:

And hopefully one day there will be biographies about Inge Lehmann (1888 - 1993), a Danish seismologist who discovered that Earth has a solid inner core inside a molten outer core.

Looking for picture books? These are worth searching out, but there's plenty more if you look in the catalogue:

Happy rock hunting.

25th March Tolkien Reading Day

Tomorrow is a day to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien, to encourage fans to celebrate and promote his life and works by reading favourite passages from his works.  A day that will remain a mystery to me as I have not read any Tolkien. I have been scarred for life! My Year 2 teacher who thought reading aloud should be part of her class's day and who also read aloud very well,  read us The Hobbit. I did not cope and I think I was one of the more capable children in the class. Maybe it went over their heads. It just disturbed me. I was seven years old and I had so many questions. 

Since then I cannot even attempt Tolkien or go to the movies of the books. I am not even keen on other fantasies where the characters are too far removed from normal people. I do love books and reading though and as a result of this I have always been very careful about matching my students to texts. I want to stretch them vocabulary and thinking-wise, but I don't want them to have their wellbeing disrupted.

I have been teaching for a very long time though and despite the fact that I am often surprised by what my young students have watched, their ability to visualise while being read to has changed greatly and what once worked as imaginary texts has changed too. I have been in the habit of sharing Jill Tomlinson books with classes. I find them humorous and each chapter stands alone well. The students I read it to recently laughed much less than those of other years. They liked the repetitions, but often did not think what a character did was unusual or funny. 

In a kindergarten class I thought I would share some poems for World Poetry Day. If it had any element of fantasy in it, they did not cope or laugh at all. When I read I've Never Seen a Purple Cow, they just kept saying 'no one would ever see a purple cow! That's not funny.' I read them a picture book version of The Owl and the Pussycat and they could retell the story. The consensus though was that it was silly and when I said that Edward Lear wanted it to be silly and to make you smile, it didn't make it any better. Just as I was despairing I finished with Hands by Julia Donaldson which they mimed aloud to and loved. When I told them who the poet was they rattled off a list of what she had written. The power of Julia Donaldson!

I did get to smile though, when a child asked to take home a copy of The Owl and the Pussycat for his mum. I'll ask him next week what mum thought. Meanwhile there is Bloomsday when we read Joyce, a day to read Tolkien,  a day to celebrate Roald Dahl, Dr Seuss and Eric Carle, so perhaps it's time to have a Julia Donaldson Day! I haven't always been a fan but the students I teach definitely are.

27th March International Scribble Day

 

International Scribble Day is about showing appreciation for and celebrating the act of scribbling. If like me, you like to scribble or doodle while taking notes, or you like turning scribbles into things like Mr Squiggle used to do on television, then this is a good day to  celebrate.

It was founded in 2019 by Diane Alber, the author of children's book I'm Not Just a Scribble. the theme of this book is that art can come in any Forman anyone can be encouraged to be an artist. Besides inspiring creativity, the book also includes ideas about kindness and acceptance.

Do some scribbling and then a black marker to give it eyes and a mouth, maybe even hands and legs.    

Bloch I think I'll do this as a lunchtime activity and then use the children's scribbles as part of a book display. What will I put out? These among others.

•  It's Not Scribble to Me  by Kate Ritchie

• Scribbles and Ink  by Ethan Long (there are two other books in this series)

• Line and Scribble  by Deborah Vogrig

• Ike's Incredible Ink by Brianne Farley

• Scribble by Ruth Chi

• The Line  by Paula Bossio

• Lines  by Suzy Lee

• A Squiggly Line  by Robert Vescio 

• Lines that Wiggle by Candace Whitman

• Gregory and the Magic Line by Dawn Piggot

• The Green Line  by Polly Farquharson

• The Big Adventure of a Little Line by Serge Bloch

• Inkblot by Margaret Peot

• Follow the Line...by Laura Ljungkvist (several titles)

14th March Save a Spider Day; World Spider Day

Whatever title you give this day it is about valuing spiders for their role in the environment.

"Spiders help reduce insect populations significantly along with species like birds or ants. Without them, the world's natural environment would be severely unbalanced."

Except for a few poisonous spiders out of the more than 40,000 species of spiders around the world, spiders are practically not dangerous to humans.

We need to learn more about spiders so we can admire them rather than trying to eradicate them.

There are a multitude of nonfiction books that can help with this. Here's some the library has:

Spiders by Laura Marsh

I'm Trying to Love Spiders by Bethany Barton

Spiders  by Valerie Bodden

Spiders  by Recca Gilpin

Up Close Spiders by Kathy Riley

But you do need to share some stories as well!

Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss

Aaaarrgghh! Spider!  by Lydia Monk

Frank the Seven-Legged Spider by Michaele Razi

Seaver the Weaver by Paul Czajak and the Brothers Hilts

Gizo-Gizo! by Emily Williamson

Any Anansi story...there are several, but this is an oldie and a goodie.

Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott

There are more books about spiders listed here. If you still need convincing that spiders are wonderful you need to read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.

9th March False Teeth Day

While researching Tooth Fairy Day I learned there is actually a day for  false teeth. Do we still need this day? It is celebrated on the day that Charles Graham was issued with a patent for his invention of artificial teeth. It was designed initially to make us think about teeth care too. 

I wonder if children actually have knowledge of false teeth today. Their grandparents probably have implants or a small plate, not dentures. I thought immediately of the book Grandad's Teeth by Rod Clements which used to make children really laugh. If you are going to read it aloud, you need to practise first because Grandad's speech without his teeth is hard to say. 

I was surprised to find that we had other false teeth books in the library. There are false teeth in 

• Crabtree by Jon and Tucker Nichols

This tall book is about Alfred Crabtree who has lost his false teeth. He knows he will find them if he tidies up his clutter. He sets out to organise his life.  

and in 

• Dave and the Tooth Fairy by Verna Wilkins and Carl Pearce.

Despite being about the tooth fairy, this book also talks about grandad's false teeth.

Your library might also have these: