16th Ice Cream Day

Ice cream is celebrated on the third Sunday in July in America and other parts of the world. It is probably in July because it is summer and hot. In Australia it is not summer, but the ice cream shops in my beachside suburb still seem to have customers. Do Americans really eat more ice cream than Australians?

I am always tempted to write ice cream as one compound word icecream. The spelling checker moves it apart. the dictionary says it's two words, but why? I wonder if Bonnie Bader explains why in her book Curious About ice Cream.

Putting together a display? Look for these:

• Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems

• Vanilla Ice Cream by Bob Graham

• Gorilla Loves Vanilla  by Chae Strathie

• There's Broccoli in my Ice Cream by Emily MacKenzie

• Izzy the Ice Cream Fairy  by Tim Bugbird

• Ice Cream Summer  by Peter Sis 

• When Ice Cream Had a Meltdown  by Michelle Robinson

• Splat the Cat: I Scream for Ice Cream by Rob Scott

• I Scream Ice Cream by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Easy chapter books:

• Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer  by James  Kochalka

• Stick Dog Dreams of Ice Cream  by Tom Watson

• Captain Awesome vs the Evil Ice Cream Jingle  by Stan Kirby

• Spy Penguins: The Spy Who Loved Ice Cream by Sam Hay

And a biography:

• The Sweetest Scoop by Lisa Robinson and Stacy Innerst is a biography about the entrepreneurial, activist duo behind Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, met when they were twelve years old. Ben liked art, Jerry liked science, and they both loved food . . . especially ice cream!

Too hot February!

We have sweltered at school since the term began. The heat and humidity seem interminable. It doesn't make for productive teaching when everyone just wants to get cool. Why aren't schools air-conditioned? I tried the 'power of suggestion' by putting together library displays about swimming and ice cream.

Many of the preschool classes have been to the library for the first time and it is a long walk (not really but they think it is) so we pretended to eat ice cream, acted out an ice cream poem and read Sam Lloyd's Two Little Aliens . In this story two aliens find ice cream and don't know what to do with it. It always makes the children feel so knowledgeable and they laugh at the aliens.

The displays worked. All the ice cream books left the library very promptly.They went before I even had the chance to share Bob Graham's Vanilla Ice Cream or Peter Sis' Ice Cream Summer. I always  enjoy sharing Mr Plunkett's Pool too, as there are so many scenarios that arise and can then be  discussed by the children, especially with my students who think that everyone has a pool or lives near the beach.

Below are some of the books we put out on display.

23rd July Hot Dog Day; Vanilla Ice Cream Day

Hot dogs and ice cream are not necessarily topics we associate with children's books, but even national days such as these can in fact be celebrated by reading wonderful children's books.

Mo Willems has both topics covered by his popular pigeon in The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog  and by Elephant and Piggie in Should I Share My Ice Cream?

Tom Watson has both topics covered in his series about Stick Dog, Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog and Stick Dog Dreams of Ice Cream. These quick-read novels are extremely popular with my able readers in Year 2. They will be very excited to see Book 4 has just arrived.

Then these three ice-cream books just should not be missed by anyone!
• Vanilla Ice Cream  by Bob Graham
• Ice Cream Summer by Peter Sis
• I Scream Ice Cream by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Serge Bloch (just amazing word play to revisit and ponder over often)