28th March Skipping Day

Our school is a 'big' skipping school. We take part in Jump Rope for Heart and the kindergarten teachers make a point of teaching their children to skip each year and giving them time during most days to do some skipping before the big event. Last year the teachers told the children they would come to school in their pyjamas if they raised a certain amount of money. It was a very large amount and I don't think the teachers thought it would ever happen, but it did! So school in pyjamas happened.

So when I read it was Skipping Day in England today I thought I would investigate what they did in the way of skipping. It turns out that it is not a fundraising day, but purely about children, fun and good aerobic exercise. Schools can register, just like our Jump Rope and take part in activities that are planned and conducted by visitors to the school.

Today as I was putting Olive and the Big Secret  by Tor Freeman back on the shelf, I noticed that Olive always seems to have a skipping rope in her hands and then I went to the catalogue to see what other books could be used to  encourage skipping. There were three:
• Hop, Skip and Jump, Maisy!  by Lucy Cousins
• Ready, Set, Skip!  by Jane O'Connor and Ann James
• Elsie Piddock Skips in her Sleep  by Eleanor Farejon and Charlotte Voake.

And then two books with skipping rhymes:
• One Two Skip a Few by Roberta Arenson
• Schoolyard Rhymes by Judy Sierra and Melissa Sweet

And don't forget all those rhymes from your childhood like Cinderella dressed in yella, went upstairs...; Miss Mary Mack all dressed in black...; Teddy bear, teddy bear... etc  all collected together by June factor in Australia and Roger Abrahams in the USA.

30th December Jane O'Connor 1947

While the American author Jane O'Connor has written many books she is best known for Fancy Nancy, a feisty young heroine who has a penchant for words and she is certainly doing her bit to increase children's vocabulary. There are whole units of work on the net designed to get teachers teaching vocabulary using her 'fancy' words. See this and this. Just 'spectacular' to use a Nancy word. The first fancy Nancy book was published in 2005 and now there is a whole marketing phenomenon. This year Nancy got her own chapter book, afterall she has grown up somewhat and is now fancying herself as a super sleuth. Obviously she appeals more to boys than girls, but she has proved popular in my library and she certainly gives the Pinkalicious, Princess Poppy and Eloise aficionados somewhere else to look.