4th March Red and Yellow Day

On Wednesday 4 March 2026, Surf Life Saving Australia will launch the very first Red and Yellow Day, a new nationwide celebration of Surf Life Saving and the thousands of volunteer surf lifesavers who keep our beaches safe. Schools across Australia can play a powerful role in bringing the day to life, helping to educate students on essential water safety knowledge and the importance of the red and yellow flags. Our school is celebrating by wearing a touch of red and yellow and talking about the importance of Surf Lifesaving.

There are not many books that feature lifesaving, but the one our library has is worth a read! And if your library doesn't have it, watch it on Storybox Library.

Your library might also have these books about being a Nipper.

2nd June Fish and Chips Day

There is an adult book by Panikos Panayi called Fish and Chips: A Takeaway History. In this book Panayi asserts that in British culture when it comes to  cuisine, nothing comes to mind faster than fish and chips. Sprinkled with salt and vinegar and often accompanied by mushy peas, fish and chips were the original British fast food. He discovers the origins of eating fish and potatoes in Britain.  The birth of the meal itself, telling how fried fish was first introduced and sold by immigrant Jews before it spread to the British working classes in the early nineteenth century.

This information is the subject of a children's picture book The Fabulous Tale of Fish and Chips by Elaine Becker and Omer Hoffmann. This is the playful, fictional account of how the real-life Joseph Malin, a poor Jewish immigrant, invented fish and chips. Joseph Malin loves his grandmother's fried fish and thinks he may be able to sell it to make some pocket money. Annette, the greengrocer across the street, sees an opportunity to hawk her own family favourite: Belgian-style fried potatoes. The rivalry sparks a new culinary feast.

The English Reading Scheme, Book Bug also has a book that tells the history of fish and chips...The Truth About Fish and Chips by Paul Mason.

Australians also love their fish and chips and I'm sure most of us do not know about the origins of this meal. It is popular on visits to the seaside where inevitably it will be shared with greedy seagulls. So any Australian books that feature fish and chips usually also feature seagulls.

• Chip  by Kylie Howarth is such fun. Chip is a seagull with a penchant for chips. The chip seller decides to thwart him and his friends. A battle ensues.

• Max by Marc Martin is a picture book about good friends Bob and Max. After work they go fishing together until ...

• Let's Go to the Beach  by Gwyn Perkins tells the story of Iggy and his grandfather's day at the beach that includes fish and chips.

• Chippy Chasers: Chippy Jackpot  by Sam Cotton is a graphic novel featuring Seagull mates Steve-O, Stanley and Stacey and they love chips.

• Super Geeks: Fish and Chips  by James Hart 

These books also feature chips.

• Don't Dip Your Chips in Your Drink, Kate!  by Caryl Hart and Leigh Hodgkinson

• The Best Chip by Kate Leake

• All Mine! by Zehra Hicks

• The Last Chip  by Duncan Beedie

28th August Book Week 2017

Well, Book Week 2017 has come and gone. The Early Childhood list of books didn't particularly inspire me to do great things with the books and children, but we did read them. As predicted Chip by Kylie Howarth was the big winner with the children in Kindergarten and Year 1. The library now has masses of seagulls flying 'aerobatically' around the library. It was interesting the connections the children made between the books. The biggest connection was one I hadn't predicted or planned for... and it was that three of the titles The Snow Wombat, Go Home Cheeky Animals  and Gary all had a map in them. Maps are in the new Geography syllabus and Kindergarten were right into following the trail of Gary and the wombat. They were very keen to discuss whether Gary and the wombat took the quickest routes home and if they didn't, why not? When I shared Snow Wombat I also shared Penelope the Pygmy Possum as it too is set in the high country, and the children were keen to draw a map to show where Penelope's partner went to get back to her.

The reading of the road signs in The Snow Wombat  also set the children off on a tangent about what they meant and Kindergarten who had studied Australian animals last term wanted to revisit Sebastian Lives in a Hat  and Wilhelmina Wombat, two books about orphaned wombats. 

The thing that surprised me most sharing the shortlisted books was how little my city-living 5 to 7 year olds knew about living on a farm, living a long way from a city or what it meant to live with a drought. These experiences are just so far removed from any experiences they have had. They are well-travelled but not within Australia. They loved the 'mud' page in All I Want for Christmas is Rain and given more time I think doing an art activity that involved painting with mud or a collage  like those in Nannie Loves would have been worthwhile.

Other events, such as  tabloid reading activities that all the teachers, class and specialists got involved in were well-received  and the children were quick to tell me where they had been and what was read. The teachers all wrote a Book Week message to go with their chosen book and then the books were displayed in the library for loan.

Oh well, now for Book Week 2018 and its Early Childhood Shortlist. Let's hope there's more to work with and a little more depth. It tends to sell the children it is supposed to be for, very short.