13th - 19th November National Recycling Week

The preschool on the corner of the street I live in is very good at letting the community know what they are celebrating. The signboard is changed regularly to let you know what they think is important and children's work displayed. This week they tell us it is National Recycling Week.

This week aims to encourage Australians to better recycle. Planet Ark started the campaign in 1996. This year’s theme is ‘What Goes Around Comes Around’.

The focus is on giving resources a second life, consuming less, reducing the need for new resources, and of course, recycling!

The students at our school are very well informed when it comes to recycling and the library has a myriad of resources to assist with this. See here.

Two new books in the library that are just perfect for under eights  and which exemplify this year's theme are:

• Rubbish! Don't Throw It Away by Linda Newbery and Katie Rewse.

From pine cones on the grass to old coat- hangers in the cupboard, from empty cardboard boxes to unwanted curtains, used wrapping paper, yogurt pots, odd socks, sinks and fallen leaves What can we do with all this stuff that nobody wants?

The Dragonflies nursery know exactly what to do. They are full of creative ideas and love to think up ways in which old things can be made new and useful again. And it’s all free!

• Ruby's Repair Cafe  by Michelle Worthington and Zoe Bennett

Ruby loves to fix things, rather than throwing them away. When a shiny new department store opens next door to Ruby’s Repair Cafe, everyone in town soon forgets about fixing things. But will Ruby be able to save her family business from big business before the rubbish takes over the town?

17th June Global Garbage Man Day

 

Yes, a day to celebrate your garbage men. They do a fabulous job of making sure your environment is clean and rubbish free. A study has estimated that Sanitation work is one of the most dangerous and hazardous jobs. The odours could make the workers sick, a broken glass may slit, and inhaling dust may lead to respiratory problems. Not many of us would volunteer for this job.

A key to developing a child's lifelong love for reading is by reading them books about their interests. And this starts from the time they are toddlers. It's not uncommon for preschoolers to develop a kind of obsession with a particular topic and this can be garbage trucks.

The young students I teach are far more interested in the garbage trucks than the men that arrive with them. This fascination starts very young. If you ask a three year old what day the garbage truck comes they will be able to tell you. It is on their weekly agenda. This is the blurb from Benji's Garbage Trucks by Roberta and Benji Cocking.

All young children look forward to their weekly visit and garbage pickup by their garbage/sanitary trucks and drivers. For Benji Cocking, everything about the arrival of the garbage truck for the weekly trash pickup is exciting! Taking out the trash, the excitement of seeing the truck and his favorite driver, the driver honking the horn, watching the powerful robotic arm lifting the trash bin and dumping the trash, and the trash shattering into the compactor and being smashed are what Benji anxiously looks forward to every week. If you love garbage trucks, you will love the pictures Benji has gathered for you in this book!

In Australia we have Rajah Street  by Myo Yim which tells a similar story. Junya loves to sit at his window and watch the goings-on in Rajah Street. He  thinks Wednesdays are the best days, because that is when the garbage trucks come.

If you choose to embrace this strange fascination  then gather a collection of books about garbage trucks, garbage an the people who collect it. They will make a great display.

• The Garbage Trucks are Coming Today by Susan Taylor and Christian  Bocquee A fun read for any child who loves garbage trucks.

• I Stink  by Kate and Jim McMullan

• Trashy Town  by Andrea Zimmerman, David Clemesha and Dan Yaccarino

• Supertruck by Stephen Savage

• Hooray for Garbage Collectors  by Tessa Keenan

• Garbage Collectors  by Laura K. Murray

• Garbage Trucks  by Quinn M. Arnold

• Trash Truck  by Max Keane

• Garbage Trucks on the Go by Beth Bence Reinki

• If You Were a Garbage Truck  by Diane Ohanesian and Joey Chou

• The Story of Rubbish  by Katie Haynes

• What a Load of Rubbish!  by Riley Flynn

•  How a Recycling Truck Works by Lara Bryan and Giovana Medeiros

•  Here Comes the Garbage Barge  by Jonah Winter

• Green Machine by Rebecca Donnelly and Christophe Jacques

3rd November World Jellyfish Day

It is Jellyfish Day. Jellyfish look beautiful but they are often dangerous because of their stingers and they are indicators of unhealthy oceans for scientists.

Once, the ocean was full of friends. But lately, a little jellyfish named Luna has noticed that things are changing--friends are disappearing! When she sets out to find them, she discovers that everyone has a part to play in protecting the careful balance of the ocean. In this beautifully illustrated and timely tale, little Luna comes up with a powerful way to deliver a message that inspires helpfulness and hope. 

What a stunning cover, this new book about jellyfish has! I have written about this day before here and here, but jellyfish books always seem to have amazing illustrations so I wanted to share this new one with you. You can see Julia read her book at Bristol Aquarium if you do not have a copy. This story tells us that jellyfish are an indicator species. Jellyfish are a profoundly powerful symbol for the declining health of our world's oceans. They are known as an indicator species because changes in their populations represent greater changes in the ecosystem. Around the world today, jellyfish are thriving in record numbers because they can live in the warmer seas and among the rubbish in it.

Jelly-Boy  by Nicole Godwin, Somebody Swallowed Stanley  by Sarah Roberts would be good companion reads as they also deal with jellyfish and rubbish in the ocean and Little Turtle and the Changing Sea by Becky Davis would be a good compare and contrast.If you would like to explore jellyfish further see what you could borrow here.

Also new,  is a picture book story about an expedition to find a giant jellyfish. The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish  is a debut book by author illustrator Chloe Savage. The subtitle 'What magic lies beneath?' makes you need to read it even more.

29th May Learn About Composting Day

I missed International Compost Awareness Week which ran from 7th to 13th May. This is a shame because their website has lots of good ideas to hook into. So instead I'm showing you books to advance the composting cause in preparation for the 29th May which is Learn About Composting Day. Did you know there were this many books specifically on composting? They make it so easy to be informed and to start a project that creates compost.