31st May World Parrot Day

 

World Parrot Day is celebrated annually on May 31st. It is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate these attractive birds. There are many threats to the population and wellbeing of parrots. Habitat loss, climate change, and wildlife trade are some of the main threats. Many parrot species are in decline. There are over 350 different kinds of parrots but most live in tropical and subtropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

To be classified as a parrot, the bird must have a curved beak, and its feet must be zygodactyl, which means there are four toes on each foot with two toes that point forward and two that point backward. Common parrots are parakeets, macaws, cockatoos and cockatiels. Australia has an amazing number of very colourful parrots.

For a display in the library I would put out these books two books to start with and then add.

• Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth

• Kakapo Rescue  by Sy Montgomery

• The Parrot Tico Tango  by Anna Witte

• Parrots by Valerie Bodden 

• Two Parrots by Rumi Rashin

• The Parrot and the Merchant by Pippa Goodhart and Marjan Vafaian

• A Pandemonium of Parrots  by Kate Baker and Hui Skipp

• Papagayo  by Gerald McDermott

• Petunia Paris's Parrot  by Katie Haworth and Jo Williamson

• The Cocky Who Cried Dingo  by Yvonne Morrison and Heath McKenzie

• Pepi Sings a New Song  by Laura Ljungkvist

• Harold Finds His Voice by Courtney Dicmas

• Hello Jimmy! by Anna Walker

• Pardon Me! by Daniel Miyares

• Mango, Abuela and Me by Meg Medina and Angela Dominguez

• Cezanne's Parrot  by Amy Guglielmo and Brett Helquist

• Town Parrot by Penelope Bennett and Sue Heap

• Pedro the Puerto Rican Parrot by Beverly Jatwani and Sunita Chawdhary

• Polly Parrot Picks a Pirate by Peter Bently and Penny Dann

• The Gossipy Parrot  by Shen Roddie and Michael Terry

• I Said Nothing: the Extinction of the Paradise Parrot  by Gary Crew and Mark Wilson

If you do not have many parrot books, remember there'll be in a lot of parrots in pirate books!

SDG 2 Zero Hunger

 

Goal 2 - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable farming.

A profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed if we are to nourish the more than 690 million people who are hungry today – and the additional 2 billion people the world will have by 2050. Increasing agricultural productivity and sustainable food production are crucial to help alleviate the perils of hunger.

The list of picture books to choose from is here.

There are two picture books that highlight this goal very clearly. They are both based on real events. The first is shorter. The second is longer and suitable too for an older audience. There are teaching notes for The Good Garden 

http://www.citizenkidcentral.com/pdfs/GoodGardenThe_2105_teaching.pdf

Here is the blurb:

For a long time, the people of Hargigo, a village in the tiny African country of Eritrea, were living without enough food for themselves and their animals. The families were hungry, and their goats and sheep were hungry too. Then along came a scientist, Dr. Gordon Sato, who helped change their lives for the better. And it all started with some special trees.

These are the trees, 
Mangrove trees, 
That were planted by the sea.

With alternating verse and prose passages, The Mangrove Tree invites readers to discover how Dr. Sato's mangrove tree-planting project transformed an impoverished village into a self-sufficient community. 

Here is the blurb:

Based on the real story of farm transformation underway in Honduras and many other countries, this book offers children ways they can be part of the movement to grow "good gardens" and foster food security.
Eleven-year-old María Luz and her family live on a small farm. This year their crop is poor, and they may not have enough to eat or to sell for other essentials, such as health care, school uniforms and books. 
When María's father must leave home to find work, she is left in charge of their garden. Then a new teacher comes to María's school and introduces her to sustainable farming practices that yield good crops. As María begins to use the same methods at home, she too sees improvements.

In my booklet, there are just three things to do:

* Before reading: Ask: When was the last time you felt hungry? What did it feel like? How long did you have to wait for food?

* Write the title of the book you read.

* Complete this sentence: This story made me think about ...

26th July National Tree Day

THERE is Chinese proverb that says: "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.''

With National Tree Day on Sunday and Schools Tree Day on today, it is time to think about planting trees.

The aim of Tree Day is to inspire, educate and recruit Australians to come together to make a positive difference to the environment. Native plants, and usually ones indigenous to the area, are planted to provide food and shelter for wildlife, increase biodiversity and combat habitat loss.

If your school doesn't plant trees there are many other ways to inspire children to think about trees and how important they are. Reading picture books about  real people who have planted trees to save their environment  really inspired a group of year 2 readers at my school. They did a small project on Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist who planted thousands trees which was initiated by the group reading picture books about her life and achievements. There are now five wonderful picture books about Wangari:

• Wangari's Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter

• Seeds of Change by Jen Fullerton Johnson and Sonia Lynn Sadler

• Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli and Kadir Nelson

• Planting the Trees of Kenya  by Claire A. Nivola

• Wangari Maathai by Franck Prevot and Aurelia Fronty

Another book about an environmental project that involved planting trees is
• The Mangrove Tree by Cindy Trumbone and Susan L. Roth

And while we are on the subject of trees and biographies have a look at new book
• Luna and Me  by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw which tells the story of activist Julia Butterfly Hill who lived in a tree for two years to save it from being chopped down, and 
• The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins and Jill McElmurry which tells the story of activist Kate Sessions' greening of San Diego.

There is a multitude of fantastic books about trees and planting them. Below are many others worth finding at the library!