26th November Cake Day

It's Cake Day tomorrow! Let them eat cake! 

This post is for my cake-loving, book-loving friend who had her birthday yesterday. I feel guilty because I didn't make her a cake and made her make do with a cinnamon bun.

There are so many picture books to satisfy any love of cake. Here's weeks worth:

• I Love Cake!  by Tammi Sauer and Angie Rozelaar

• I Really Want the Cake!  by Simon Philip and Lucia Gaggiotti

• Whopper Cake by Karma Wilson and Will Hillenbrand

•  Cake  by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet

• Every Cake Has a Story  by Christina Tosi and Emily Balsley

•  Just the Right Cake  by Christina Tosi and Emily Balsley

• Where Has All the Cake Gone?  by Andrew Sanders and Aisha Awaad

and a series Monkey and Cake by Drew Daywalt and Olivier Tallec

If you can't find these at your library, substitute any of these other titles.

13th - 19th November National Recycling Week

The preschool on the corner of the street I live in is very good at letting the community know what they are celebrating. The signboard is changed regularly to let you know what they think is important and children's work displayed. This week they tell us it is National Recycling Week.

This week aims to encourage Australians to better recycle. Planet Ark started the campaign in 1996. This year’s theme is ‘What Goes Around Comes Around’.

The focus is on giving resources a second life, consuming less, reducing the need for new resources, and of course, recycling!

The students at our school are very well informed when it comes to recycling and the library has a myriad of resources to assist with this. See here.

Two new books in the library that are just perfect for under eights  and which exemplify this year's theme are:

• Rubbish! Don't Throw It Away by Linda Newbery and Katie Rewse.

From pine cones on the grass to old coat- hangers in the cupboard, from empty cardboard boxes to unwanted curtains, used wrapping paper, yogurt pots, odd socks, sinks and fallen leaves What can we do with all this stuff that nobody wants?

The Dragonflies nursery know exactly what to do. They are full of creative ideas and love to think up ways in which old things can be made new and useful again. And it’s all free!

• Ruby's Repair Cafe  by Michelle Worthington and Zoe Bennett

Ruby loves to fix things, rather than throwing them away. When a shiny new department store opens next door to Ruby’s Repair Cafe, everyone in town soon forgets about fixing things. But will Ruby be able to save her family business from big business before the rubbish takes over the town?

19th June International Cardboard Box Day

I know it's not the 19th June, but yesterday at school Year 2 were involved in a design and make day with other schools as well, using cardboard boxes. A few years ago Kindergarten did a unit of inquiry on Building and they too made things using cardboard boxes. Back then we used to 'flood' the classrooms with a bulk loan from the library to accompany their unit of inquiry, so I have built up quite a collection of books that feature cardboard boxes and building. Sadly, none of these made their way to Year 2 before they embarked on their activity. This made me look online to see if there was a day to celebrate cardboard boxes and there is, the 19th June! Next year the library will feature a box display in honour of this event!

I would use these books among others:

• The Cardboard Box Book  by Roger Priddy

• Out of the Box  by Jemma Westing

• What Can I Do With a Cardboard Box  by James Maclaine

• Boxitects by Kim Smith

• The Box Full of Wonders by Karl Newson

• What to do with a Box  by Jane Yolen

• Star Jumper by Frank Asch

• The Nowhere Box  by Sam Zuppardi

• Mabel and Sam at Home  by Linda Urban

• The Man Who Loved Boxes by Stephen Michael King

• Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

• Chistina Katerina and the Box  by Patricia Lee Gauch

• Big Box Little Box  by Caryl Hart

• A Box Can Be Many Things  by Dana Meachan Ray

• The Box Boy  by Mal Webster

• Mila and Ivy  by Katrina McKelvey

• Eggbox Dragon  by Richard Adams

12th November Diwali

It is nearly time for Diwali, the Hindu festival of light that celebrates the victory of good over evil,  and as quite a number of the students at my school will be celebrating we always have a book display. 

Currently Kindergarten and I are reading folktales too, so yesterday we read an Indian folktale, The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin which was a 'big hit' with them. As a result of this my Diwali display grew to include Indian folktales and other stories.

There are many books about Diwali available, but look for these in the library as they will cover all aspects and enable you to answer any questions the children will have:

• Binny's Diwali by Thrity Umrigar

• Shubh  Diwali by Chitra Soundar

• Lighting a Lamp by Jonny Zucker

• It's Diwali by Kabir Sehgal

• Happy Diwali  by Sanyukta Mathur    

• All About Diwali: Things to Make and Do by Swapna Haddow

• Rama and Sita  by Malachy Doyle

• Rama and the Demon King by Jessica Souhami

• The Story of Divaali  by Nilesh Mistry

• Rama's Return  by Lisa Bruce

• Chook Doolan: Let's Do Diwali  by James Roy 

• Rangoli by Anuradha Anath     

Some Indian folktales to look for:

• The Elephant's Friend  by Marcia Williams

• The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin  by Betsy Bang

• No Dinner! by Jessica Souhami

• Grandma and the Great Gourd by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

• Monkey  by Gerald McDermott

• The Monkey and the Crocodile by Paul Galdone

• Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young

• Under the Great Plum Tree  by Sufiya Ahmed

• Once a Mouse... by Marcia Brown

• Pattan's Pumpkin  by Chitra Soundar

• The Elephant's Garden  by Jane Ray

• Jamil's Clever Cat  by Fiona French

• Manu and the Talking Fish  by Roberta Arenson

• The Tiger Child  by Joanna Troughton

Stories:

• The Tiger-Skin Rug  by Gerald Rose

• Stay for Dinner by  Sandy Parappukkaran

• Amma's Sari by Sandy Parappukkaran

3rd to 12th November Frog ID Week

    

 

Be a citizen scientist.Take part in Australia's biggest frog count! Our frogs are under threat from habitat loss, disease and climate change. Record frog calls with the FrogID app for our scientists to listen and identify and help provide valuable data for the protection and conservation of frogs.

Similar to Bird Week when Australians keep tabs on the birds in their backyard, here is a chance to record the frogs you can hear. What a fun thing to do!

Living in Australia there are 230 species within the five native frog families. Sounds like a lot, but the number of frogs in the world is dwindling and we do need to be aware of them and what we can do to ensure their survival.

If you want to read more about frogs while doing your frog hunt, borrow these books from the library. They are full of good information for a budding frog scientist.

3rd November Sandwich Day

Sandwich: Two delicious slices of bread hugging an array of mouth-watering ingredients, creating the perfect handheld meal to satisfy hunger cravings. 

This day commemorates the birth anniversary of John Montague, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, but really it celebrates sandwiches, their versatility and reasons we enjoy them.

It is easy to celebrate this day in our library. Find and read these books: