National Lighthouse Day is on the 7th August in the USA.
The life of the lighthouse keeper of old could be a tough and lonely existence. The first lighthouse was built by the ancient Egyptians in 290BC, and it used a giant mirror to magnify light from a constantly burning fire to guide ships to the entrance to Alexandria harbour.
Fast-forward to the 17th century when maritime trade boomed and so did lighthouse construction. Thousands were built around the world. There are an estimated 50,000 lighthouses in the world today.
I have written about this day before here and here. I have a Lighthouse Pinterest with my friend from Momotimetoread which has all the picture books you could need to celebrate this day, but starting with Sophie Blackall's Hello Lighthouse would mean that you and your students would have a wonderful reading experience and plenty to talk about. Hatchette have teaching notes to help with this.
Having explored this wonderful book at length, it might then be time to look at more factual lighthouse books such as:
• How Does a Lighthouse Work? by Roman Belyaev
• Lighthouse of Alexandria by Bold Kids
• How Did They Build That? Lighthouse by Tamra B. Orr
Thanks for this post about lighthouses. When I was a child we stayed near a lighthouse and every day I would ride my bike along the road and sit under the tower and read my books. We are so lucky to have so many fabulous books about lighthouses.
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