3rd November Jellyfish Day

Jellyfish Day is  not  a day many people will be celebrating, I'm sure, but at school the Kindergarten classes spend the term exploring things that live in the sea and one of the Kindergarten teachers really has 'a thing' about jellyfish and wanted her class to do some 'jellyfish art'. There is so much on pinterest and the web suggesting art projects for young students and she had decided what she wanted to do, but we had very few books in the library that she could use to research jellyfish with her class. So three years ago I was on a quest to find some. Now the library has these four and all are worth having. The photos in Jellies: The Life of Jellyfish by Twig C. George are superb. Jellyfish  by Mari Schuh has just the right amount of reading for Kindergarten and the the other two Jellyfish by Louise Spilsbury and Jellyfish by Valerie Boden are good examples of information texts for young children.

While looking for jellyfish books though I was surprised to find the library already had five books where a main character was actually a jellyfish. Who would have thought to choose a jellyfish as a character? Not me!

8th January Bubble Bath Day

Having a bubble bath is so relaxing. Only thing better? Reading a book while soaking in the bubble bath, not that I tell the students I teach to read in the bath. While there are are some picture books about bubble baths, none are great literature so don't rush off to buy them. Instead use Bubble Bath Day to read an old favourite that my preschoolers just love, The Lady With the Alligator Purse. And even if you don't have this book you will know the verse from your own childhood,

Miss Lucy had a baby

His name was Tiny Tim

She put him in the bathtub

To see if he could swim.

He drank up all the water.

He ate up all the soap.

He tried to eat the bathtub

But it wouldn't go down his throat...

Have your preschoolers act out the parts, Tim, Miss Lucy, the Doctor, the Nurse and the Lady with the alligator purse.  And if you don't want to share this, find Margaret Mahy's Bubble Trouble and enjoy it with children or visit the library titles shown below.

2nd October World Farm Animal Day

World Farm Animal Day is devoted to mourning, memorializing and exposing the useless death and sufferings of the pigs, chickens, cows, turkeys and the other sentient and innocent animals slaughtered and raised for food. October 2nd is the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi who was the outspoken supporter of the non- violence towards animals.

Good picture books to use today would be those where the farm animals have the last laugh at the expense of humans! See:

• Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury

• Click, Clack Moo: Cows That Type; Thump, Quack, Moo; Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

• Punk Farm; Punk Farm on Tour by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

• Serious Farm by Tim Egan

• Funny Farm by Mark Teague

22nd December Jerry Pinkney (1939) Phil Cummings (1957) Jarrett J. Krosoczka (1977)

Jerry Pinkney is the American author illustrator who won the Caldecott Medal last year for his amazingly beautiful rendition of the fable The Lion and the Mouse. It is almost wordless and even if you didn't know the story the pictures are enough. He has won many awards and the opening words on his website tell you why. "I am a storyteller at heart. So each project begins with the question, 'Is this story worth telling? Is the manuscript an interesting read? Is it surprising and challenging? Will I, in the process of making pictures, learn something new?'" Looking at the detail in his illustrations and the amount of time spent even on the endpages (see Noah's Ark) you know that Jerry Pinkney loves his job and takes it very seriously.

Australian author, Phil Cummings on the other hand does not take his writing so seriously. Most of his books, especially his bridging novels are humorous and his picture book Boom Bah! with illustrations by Nina Rycroft is lots of fun (and noise) when shared with very young readers. I particularly like using his picture books Midge, Mum and the Neighbours and Marty and Mei-Ling (both out of print) with classes during units of work that require a community, school, families, multicultural-type focus or which deal with prejudice, identity or social interaction.

American author illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka is new to me, but I cannot wait to read Baghead with a class next year and make them! It may well be a one-hit wonder because books like this don't sustain many readings once you know the reason, but I can see librarians and teachers having fun with it.