15th September International Dot Day

International Dot Day will be held on 15 September 2025 all around the world. This global celebration of creativity, courage and collaboration is typically held around the 15th of September to celebrate the publication of the book.

My school has not celebrated Dot Day for quite some time now, which is such a pity because it was a day where teachers and students had fun, did some wonderful art and craft and remembered what they did for quite some time after. Everyone is so hindered by published curriculum units these days. I can celebrate with the children when they visit the library for lessons or at lunchtime and the books make a wonderful display. 

I have written about this before and I have a Pinterest page with lots of suggestions for reading and art activities. There will be a special message from Peter Reynolds the instagator here on the 14th. For some ideas to use on the day see here.

Some new books to explore:

SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

 

Goal 10 Reduce inequalities within and among countries.

Across the world there is still a lot of inequality to be found. What does inequality look like? For example, even in the richest countries, there are children who cannot afford lunch at school and go hungry, women who don’t get paid as much as their male coworkers for the same job, or people who are being treated differently because of their religion, age or where they are from.

Select a book from here.

My students certainly understand equality from maths and from personal forays with what they consider to be unfair or unequal, but whether or not they can clearly verbalise or visualise inequality is a different matter. They come from very comfortable middle class homes in a prosperous city. Demonstrating inequality will need to be personal or connected in someway to their life to start with. They will have all read and understood equal shares from reading a book such as The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins, so I think I could read Four Feet Two Sandals to show that sharing and life for some children does not always work so equably.

 

Here's the blurb: 

When relief workers bring used clothing to the refugee camp, everyone scrambles to grab whatever they can. Ten-year-old Lina is thrilled when she finds a sandal that fits her foot perfectly, until she sees that another girl has the matching shoe. But soon Lina and Feroza meet and decide that it is better to share the sandals than for each to wear only one. 

Then maybe follow it up with something that talks about taking a stand, like Peter Reynold's Say Something!   

Here's the blurb:

The world needs your voice. If you have a brilliant idea... say something! If you see an injustice... say something! In this empowering picture book, author Peter H. Reynolds explores the many ways that a single voice can make a difference. Each of us, each and every day, have the chance to say something: with our actions, our words, and our voices. Perfect for kid activists everywhere, this timely story reminds readers of the undeniable importance and power of their voice especially when it comes to inequality.

This may also be the place to look at how disabled people, Indigenous people, people of other faiths are treated and whether it is equably.

These two books are suitable for very young readers and they will provide for lots of discussion post reading.

Two Mates  by Melanie and Maggie Prewett.    

Here's the blurb: 

Two Mates is the true story of the special mateship between two young boys who have grown up together in the coastal town of Broome in Australia's north-west. Jack is Indigenous and Raf is a non- Indigenous boy who has spina bifida. Jack and Raf take the reader on a journey of their daily life growing up in Broome. Together they search for hermit crabs, go hunting for barni, fish for salmon, explore the markets, eat satays and dress up as superheros. The fact that Raf is in a wheelchair is only revealed at the end of the story. 

Just Ask  by Sonia Sotomayor and Raphael Lopez

Here's the blurb:

Feeling different, especially as a kid, can be tough. But in the same way that different types of plants and flowers make a garden more beautiful and enjoyable, different types of people make our world more vibrant and wonderful. 

Just Ask,  celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges--and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages readers to do the same- When we come across someone who is different from us but we're not sure why, all we have to do is Just Ask.

Booklet tasks:

• We know what equal means from maths, so we can work out what equality means, but what does inequality mean?

 

• We read...

 

• This story made me want to change how...

 

9th January Word Nerd Day

My siblings think I'm a word nerd! The teachers at school think I'm a word nerd! So I guess I am. I prefer to say that words really interest me, their origins, purpose and power. I love picking up a picture book and reading sections to my colleague in the library. We both revel in great vocabulary and lyrical text. At the end of last year Britta Teckentrup's new book When I See Red  was being catalogued and we stopped to chat about it. I buy Britta's books because they never seem to disappoint. The illustrations are always stunning and we marvel at her output, but this book has an accompanying text which is also outstanding.

The heroine of this beautifully illustrated story feels her anger like a storm in a dark forest. It sweeps her away, and she thunders and howls. She pours down her emotions like sheets of rain; rage surges like a wind whipping angry waves. Her anger takes her on a wild ride.

The size of the font changes as her anger grows and abates. It is just so powerful. The words themselves tumble down the page, and their placement and size, as well as their meaning, effectively at generates the girl's spirit of rage and anger.

So many picture books have words that paint pictures just as much as the illustrations. I should make a bigger effort to record books that do this for me. I remember reading Ed and Rebecca Emberley's The Ant and the Grasshopper  and being astounded by the opening word image.

Somewhere on the boulevard of backyards an ant was struggling with the remnants of a picnic.

I doubt that many of my early readers would fully understand the meaning of the words 'boulevard' and 'remnants' within this context, but would I therefore not read the book to them, or worse still stop to explain what it means. Of course not. I would read the story and allow them to hear amazing vocabulary and maybe unpack it much later when we have enjoyed the story and the illustrations as a whole.

I have a box of 'word' books in the library for teachers and students to borrow for their reading and writing mentor lessons, but many of these books are more about collecting words and varying words than the beauty of them. See what is in the box here. This Pinterest page is obviously about more than just sharing picture book titles, but in amongst other things there are plenty of books to hunt out.

Among my favourites:

Phileas's Fortune  by Agnes de Lestrade and Valeria Docampo

The Word Wizard by Cathryn Falwell

The Word Collector  by Peter Reynolds 

One Word Pearl by Nicole Groeneweg and Hazel Mitchell

It is such a shame we are on holidays and I cannot do a display or plan a lesson. I would read 

One Word From Sophia  by Jim Averbeck and Yasmeen Ismail.

What is the 'one word'?

16th May Drawing Day

Today is Drawing Day ! Drop everything and draw. You know you would like to.
Pull out these books and get inspired. Bob Raczka's new book Niko Draws a Feeling will empower you to be able to draw anything even your feelings!

17th April Haiku Poetry Day

Haiku is a form of poetry that originated in Japan and for hundreds of years, school children in Japan have been introduced to poetry through the work of Issa. He was born in central Japan in 1763 and began writing poetry as a young child. Issa had a deep love for the natural world and it is the natural world that is the subject of not only his poems, but most traditional haiku. The book Cool Melons is a classic introduction to Issa's poems and an inspirational book about haiku, nature and life.

Traditionally haiku consist of 17 on ("syllables"), in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on respectively. They take nature as their subject and include  the juxtaposition of two images or ideas.Today's haiku play with the format, but usually stick to the three lines and about 17 syllables. See this lesson on youtube.

The teachers at my school make good use of the books of haiku that I have in the library, so I am happy to add new ones if I know they will be used. We have these.There is something for everyone here and quite a range. Betsy Snyder writes haiku for the very young, even for board books. There is a couple of 'how to' books, anthologies of poems and stories told in haiku.

 If you are looking for  beautiful books that use haiku as an integral part of their storytelling technique, read  Hi, Koo! by Jon J. Muth and Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein and Ed Young. Whether  studying haiku or just just sharing a good book these two are worth the effort.

21st June International Day of Yoga

Yoga is something I would like to be much better at. I love the stretching and exercise component but I am hopeless at the 'switching off' component. Schools are beginning to incorporate many of the good aspects of yoga into daily practice though, and I am asked by teachers and parents what book resources are in the library on yoga. Here is my pinterest page listing many of the books I have managed to collect. The teachers seem to like ones where the movements equate with animal shapes, like You Are a Lion by Taeeun Yoo and I Am Yoga by Susan Verde and Peter Reynolds is a particularly good introduction for any teacher or child wanting to learn what yoga is all about.

8th July Alison McGhee (1960)

Alison McGhee is a very talented American author. She seems to write for all ages and in all forms, making her the perfect creative writing teacher which she is also an expert at. I haven't read any of her novels, but reading that she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize I feel the need to rush out and find Shadow Baby .I first met her work in the picture book, Mrs Watson Wants Your Teeth. The subject of losing teeth is always very important with the age group of children I teach. They were fascinated by the concept of a teacher who was collecting baby teeth. Rumours abounded at school about how one of our Year 1 teachers was just like Mrs Watson. Then I twigged that the girl in this book was also in Countdown to Kindergarten, another book written by Alison and illustrated by Harry Bliss, so now I often put them on display together.

More recently I have followed her reflective titles that are illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, Someday (perfect for Mother's Day), Little Boy and Always. Her two most recent picture books have been illustrated by Taeeun Yoo, Only a Witch can Fly and So Many Days (every library needs a print from this of the child reading). The piece de resistance of her picture books has to be, Only A Witch Can Fly. Granted this is a beautiful book because of Taeeun Yoo's amazing linoleum block illustrations, but the poetic text combined with these illustrations makes it a very special book and it would be a shame if it was seen purely as a Halloween book. It is so much more. Make the unusual poetic stanzas accessible to young children by reading them aloud, probably more than once, talking about the words and pictures and then discussing the theme of determination and finding one's own way to do something.