20th August World Helicopter Day

 

It is World Helicopter Day on the third Sunday of August.

There's not a lot of picture books about helicopters, but there are students at school who are super keen to borrow books about helicopters.

The nonfiction information books are more popular, but there are stories too. 

This story, Yellow Copter  is my 'nightmare' book. It is about a teacher who is stuck at the top of a ferris wheel and she is rescued by a helicopter. When I was 12, a ferris wheel I was on with some young cousins stopped, with us at the very top. Next door in full sight was an open air  aquarium with sharks swimming round and round. We were there for two and a half hours, the longest day of my life!

Not all helicopter books are like this though and this is probably very exciting for readers who haven't had my experience. See all of these others.

4th May Firefighters Day

International Firefighters’ Day is observed each year on 4th May. On this date you are invited to remember the past firefighters who have died while serving our community or dedicated their lives to protecting the safety of us all. At the same time, we can show our support and appreciation to the firefighters world wide who continue to protect us so well throughout the year.

Young children are fascinated by fire engines, the noise they make and the fire station they live in. Preschoolers go on excursions to the fire station. Young students sit very attentively when fire fighters visit their school.

Whenever I need a quick lesson where students can innovate on text, learn about verbs and titles I turn to that versatile poem Fire! Fire! Cried Mrs McGuire. It is also a great provocation for any discussion about fire, and firefighters.

Here's the poem in picture book form, but it is in many poetry anthologies too. 

Any library display devoted to firefighters is quickly decimated. Here's some books that are specifically about firefighters:

Newer books that are for slightly older audiences and that treat fire where you may get a different view of firefighting very differently are:

9th July Crane Day Cockatoo Island

Travel to the era when steam power ruled – and meet one of Cockatoo Island’s ‘Iron Giants’ – with Crane Day 2022, which is being held during the Winter School Holidays on Saturday 9 July.

Between 10am and 2:30pm, visitors to the island will be able to see the No. 2 Travelling Steam Crane in action for FREE. This metal behemoth (together with the nearby Mort's Dock Steam Crane) has been restored to its former steam-powered glory by our skilled Volunteer Restoration Team.

I know lots of young children who would love this . They're the same children who will watch a construction site for hours without seeming bored and are likely yo give a running commentary to highlight all that is happening.

Read up about cranes before or after your visit:

• What Can a Crane Pick Up? by Rebecca Kai Dotlich & Mike Lowery

• Georgio and His Star Train Crane  by Jessica Spanyol

• Crane Guy  by Sally Sutton & Sarah Wilkins

• Colossal Cranes by Tony Mitton & Ant Parker

• Cranes  by Amanda Askew

• Cranes  by Kathryn Clay

• Cranes  by Aaron Frisch

• Cranes Lift!  by Beth Reinke

• Crane & Crane  by Linda Joy Singleton & Richard Smith

Crane Day is observed in Sweden on the 25th March to celebrate the return of the cranes (birds).  Given we have quite a few books in the library about these birds it might be good to celebrate them with a display in March.

13th May Train Day

Train Day is celebrated on the Saturday closest to the 10th of May. The students I teach, all of whom are under eight would not see or catch a train very often. Where they live is not on a railway line, yet I still have many small boys who are fascinated by trains. I think the fascination probably starts with Thomas the Tank Engine, but it moves on to Benedict Blathwayt's Little Red Train  series and then I find that most of those smitten will borrow any train book. Consequently the library has a good collection. Some of the more borrowed ones are here:

31st October Halloween

Well Halloween is here, finally.

 Bong goes the bell in the rickety tower,
 Twelve times...that means it's Spooky Hour.

 Listen! Hush! Oooh, what's that sound?
 The midnight spooks are coming round.

 Hubble bubble, what's that smell?
 Eleven witches stir their spell.

 It starts to fizz. They shriek, "Tee-hee!"
 Then off they zoom on broomsticks, wheeeeee!

 Out of the darkness, what's this here?
 Ten funny, floaty ghosts appear,

 Swirling, whirling, singing, "Whoo-ooooo!
 Watch out, witches. We're after you-ooooooo!"

This is the first three double spreads of a fabulous book called Spooky Countdown to Halloween by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees. It is a rollicking, rhyming story with plenty of  things to talk about, not least of which is the language. It would make a great mentor text for creative writing. There is onomatopoeia, great verbs, exclamations, questions, appeals to the senses, direct speech and exaggeration. I bought it today and can't wait to try it out.

PS I got to school the next day and thought I would just have a look at Spookyrumpus another book by this talented duo. Something in my consciousness must have been niggling. Guess what it is the same book, just rebranded for Australian audiences. I've been jipped! Oh well they'll both get used.