4th May International Respect for Chickens Day

I read about this day online and thought how appropriate as it is a subject I have needed to source books on over the years. The preschoolers and Year 2 at school often have eggs in incubators as part of project based learning or a unit of inquiry that studies life cycles.  see my pinterest page for some of the myriad of books on this topic. Year 1 does a unit on fairy tales and to accompany this in the library we look at chicken and fox stereotypes in narratives.

Chickens are common characters in children's stories and they usually behave in common ways so they are easy to study and make generalisations about. The classic Rosie's Walk is well known to most children and because it is humorous they are very willing to come up with adjectives to describe the hen and the fox. It is the perfect book to start with. Then we look at the traditional story Chicken Licken, (also known as Henny Penny and Chicken Little). You must look at the Emberley's Chicken Little. The illustrations and language will make you smile all day. Which adjectives on our lists apply to the chicken and fox here? Then we compare this chicken with the chicken in The Cock the Mouse and the Little Red Hen. The illustrations and language in this story make the stereotypes very obvious and tap into how fairytales are about good versus evil. These stories also allow for discussion of why sometimes the hen dies and sometimes it doesn't and the same with the fox in the second story. The rich vocabulary allows for discussion of why sometimes the fox lives in a den, sometimes a lair or even a cave. Next I look at the story of Chaunticleer from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales by using Helen Ward's beautiful The Cockerel and the Fox. From here there are so many other stories where a gullible or enterprising chicken takes on a cunning fox.

See:

 


• Henry and the Fox by Chris Wormell
• Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox
• Albert and Lila  by Rafik Schami
• A Very Proper Fox by Jan Fearnley
• The Chicken Thief by Beatrice Rodriguez

23rd January Pie Day

It's Pie Day  and your chance to eat pie. Meat pies are popular in Australia, but there are lots of others to celebrate too, savoury and sweet.  As a child I enjoyed blackberry picking. It meant my mother would make apple and blackberry pies and I loved them, smothered with custard. As it's a national day in the USA, the pies they think of are generally of the sweet variety, be it lemon meringue, pumpkin, pecan or apple.

The library has so many books where pies are celebrated so I thought I'd list some good ones.

Maybe you could share some of these titles and look at author's purpose using the PIE mnemonic.

6th July

This is a no-birthday day, so I want to tell you about two great books that I can't feature on a birthday as I don't know the authors' birth dates. The first, is Milo Armadillo by Jan Fearnley, a story about a child, Tallulah, who wants a pink rabbit so much only to have to settle on a pink armadillo that her grandmother knits her. When I bought this book for the library I found the pattern for knitting the armadillo on the Walker Books website and got all inspired about knitting. We had also just bought Kids Learn to Knit by Lucinda Guy and Francois Hall, so inspired by these books, we put together a knitting and sewing book display. The idea for the knitted bunting came from Lucinda Guy's book. While looking for books in the library suitable for this display I found Shall I Knit You a Hat? by Kate Klise and illustrated by her sister, M. Sarah Klise, and Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski and Lee Harper. Woolbur, the second book you shouldn't miss, is a lovely book about a sheep who is not like any other sheep. He hangs out with wild dogs, dyes his wool, avoids shearing and will not follow the flock. Woolbur has a wonderful list of Dos and Don'ts. A good list to start a discussion or to have as a Circle Time focus:

DO express yourself creatively… DON'T worry if you weave your forelock into a pot holder! DO march to your own beat… DON'T worry when Maa and Paa tell you to stay with the herd! DO be bold and brave… DON'T be afraid to BE YOURSELF!