13th December World Violin Day

Unfortunately there is no one at school to celebrate Violin Day. We are already on summer holidays, but at my school all of Year 2 take part in a 'strings program' where they learn to play the violin or cello. When they first begin, being in the room next door at school, is excruciating but by the time the end of year concert comes round I am amazed at how good they sound, so next year when the Year 2 students are allocated their new instrument I am going to do a display in the library of all these wonderful 'violin' books.
• Patrick by Quentin Blake. When Patrick plays his violin extraordinary things happen.
• Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman among other things this is a fun introduction to the orchestra
• A Violin for Elva by Mary Lyn Ray and Tricia Tusa. Elva wants a violin but her parents say no.
• The Pear Violin by Bingbo and Gumi. A clever squirrel turns half a pear into a violin and makes beautiful music in the forest.
• Hana Hashimoto: Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki and Qin Leng. Hana has had three violin lessons when she decides to enter a talent quest.
• The Man with the Violin by Kathy Stinson and Dusan Petricic tells the story of Joshua Bell, a famous classical violinist who gave a free concert in a subway in Washington.
• The Violin Man  by Colin Thompson is about Oscar who plays his violin outside a theatre but longs to play inside the theatre.
• The Anzac Violin by Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton is the true story of New Zealand soldier, Alexander Aitken who took his violin everywhere he went.
• Ada's Violin by Susan Hood and Sally Were Comport tells the amazing story of a group of children who play musical instruments built from recycled rubbish in Paraguay.
• The Magic Violin by Victor Kelleher. Jimbo plays the violin just like Year 2 do at the beginning...terribly.
• Kizmet and the Case of the Smashed Violin  by Frank Woodley is a short chapter book that has Kizmet trying to find out who is smashed a priceless Stradivarius violin.

6th January Pulse Feast

2016 is the International Year of Pulses. Visit the website and see a film clip that explains what pulses are and why we should celebrate them. Pulse Feast is celebrated on 6th January (aka  Bean Day). This feast encourages people around the world to eat pulses, to show their love of beans, peas, lentils and chickpeas. It also aims to raise awareness of the health, nutrition and sustainability benefits of pulses for people, animals and the planet.

And as I have written about for the last three days, and will again tomorrow there are hundreds of picture books you could use to also celebrate pulses.

Strictly speaking pulses are seeds, so they are dried beans and peas rather than the fresh vegetables, so today I searched the library catalogue for books about baked beans and was surprised to find we had some. You may have some of these too, even though some are old.

While reading these remember the song Musical Beans

Beans, beans, the musical fruit
The more you eat, the more you toot
The more you toot, the better you feel
So we have beans at every meal!


And then you will have to read It All Started With a Bean by Katie McKy.

19th July Eve Merriam (1916 - 1992) Victor Kelleher (1939)

Victor Kelleher was born in London, moved to Africa as a teen, moved to New Zealand as an adult and then came to Australia in 1976 and has been here since, so we claim him as an Australian writer. He writes for all age groups up to adults, but in my prep library he is loved for his Gibblewort the goblin books. I like to watch the children read one, come back for another and another and another in a similar way that they do for Anna Fienberg's Tashi books. We need more! Seven isn't enough.

American poet, Eve Merriam was so enamoured of poetry when she was a child that she wanted everyone to love poetry in the same way. In an article in Poetry Foundation it states that

"one of Merriam's chief aims as a writer of children's poetry was to instill in youth the same fascination with language that she experienced: " Out Loud is not only the title of a book of poems by Eve Merriam, it is also her teaching philosophy in two words. She maintains that no one learns to love poetry without hearing it read out loud . . . [and Merriam concludes that] 'if we can get teachers to read poetry, lots of it, out loud to children, we'll develop a generation of poetry readers; we may even have some poetry writers, but the main thing, we'll have language appreciators.'"

I agree with Eve Merriam. Some teachers seem scared of poetry. They need to read and recite and teach my favourite Eve Merriam poem, How to Eat a Poem. I have used it many times to teach children that poetry is not something to be feared. It should be as much fun as eating and it illustrates what Merriam is often quoted as saying 'whatever you do, find ways to read poetry. Eat it, drink it, enjoy it, and share it.'

How to Eat a Poem

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that

may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.