19th November World Toilet Day

World Toilet Day is all about celebrating toilets for everything they do for us – from taking away our waste to protecting our health, safety and dignity.

Billions of people still don’t have a safe toilet. If you’re lucky enough have one, say thanks and give it some love!

 

“Who cares about toilets? 3.6 billion people do. Because they don’t have one that works properly.“ That is the starting point of this 2021 Campaign for World Toilet Day. The Observance celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. When some people in a community do not have safe toilets, everyone’s health is threatened. Poor sanitation contaminates drinking-water sources, rivers, beaches and food crops, spreading deadly diseases among the wider population. The solution is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

What can you share with students to make them think about toilets and what it would be like not to have one? Can you make it fun?

If your library has the Lonely Planet books, start with a general discussion of toilets and look at the pictures in this book.

Look at how toilets work:

• Toilet: How It Works  by David Macauley

• Toilet Tank! Their Inner Workings by Riley Flynn

• Stinking Sewers! How Does Waste Go Down by Riley Flynn

• Where Does the Poo Go? Katie Daynes and Dan Taylor

• What Happens When I Flush the Toilet? by Walter Laplante

• How Water Gets From Treatment Plants to Toilet Bowls by Megan Cooley Peterson

• Where Does My Poo Go?  by Jo Lindley

• How Does It Work? Toilets  by Nicole Brooks Bethea

Look at the history of toilets so the students know how good they have it:

• A History of Toilet Paper (and Other Potty Tools) by Sophia Gholz and Xania Teimoy

• The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London's Poop Pollution Problem  by Colleen Paeff and Nancy Carpenter

• You Wouldn't Want to Live Without Toilets! by Fiona Macdonald and David Antram

• Toilets in History  by Elizabeth Newbery

Now have some fun laughing at toilets with these picture books and easy novels:

• There's a Big Green Frog in the Toilet by Ahn Do and Heath McKenzie

• There's a Troll on My Toilet by Catherine Jacob and Mike Byrne

• Who Pooed in My Loo? by Emma Adams and Mike Byrne

• Who Took the Toilet Paper?  by Amy Harrop and Jenny Cooper

• Who's in the Loo? by Jeanne Willis and Adrian Reynolds

• Don't Go There! by Jeanne Willis and Hrefna Bragadottir   

• Vesuvius Poovius by Kes Gray and Chris Mould

• There's a Spider in the Toilet by Edel Wignell and Margaret Power

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey is a good place to find toilet books.

• Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets

• Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000

• There's a Dragon in My Toilet!  by Tom Nicoll and Sarah Horne

• Wigglesbottom Primary: The Toilet Ghost by Pamela Butchart and Becka Moor

Then have some fun making things with toilet rolls. There are so many craft books that focus on them.

PS. We put this display of books out early as we knew the books would be popular. Well they were all gone by the end of the day, so now we have a display that is more focussed on 'poo' and animal poo and scats predominantly. 

PSS. A child asked me where to find the books on plumbing and sewerage! What seven year old wants to know the details of sewerage?

13th November World Kindness Day

Is kindness your superpower? Should it be? Kindness continues to be a much-discussed topic in classrooms, at assembly and staff meetings... I find this difficult to comprehend and continue to buy resources to help with this. There are so many books to choose from and our shelf in the non-fiction is 'groaning' so we need to move some other books to make space. Here's some of the newer additions.

When one act of kindness sparks another, anything is possible! As a girl searches for her lost dog, a simple act of generosity ripples into a wave of good deeds. In the course of a single day, each considerate action weaves lives together and transforms a neighbourhood for the better.

Being kind is super important, but it isn't always easy. Using a goodhearted, enthusiastic little boy's perspective, a lot of sensitivity and a little gentle humour, this story explores the potential pitfalls of trying to be kind, and what being kind really means. To be truly kind, it turns out, you have to try to look at things from other people's points of view. 

Meet kids - just like you - whose small acts of kindness are changing the lives of others. Learn about the work they do and discover how the future of our world starts here... with you. 

Kindness comes in all shapes and sizes and in this uplifting and inspiring book, it starts out as a dot and morphs into all sorts of different forms as it spreads joy wherever it goes. The power of kindness is explored in a distinctive and deceptively simple way as we witness kindness overcoming anger and sadness.  

Spread loving kindness wherever you go! Lyrical and poignant, Loving Kindness encourages us to be kind to ourselves, to others, and to the world we live in. It celebrates kindness, compassion, and the connection shared by every living thing on earth. We all live under the same sun, we all breathe the same air, and touch the same earth that connects us all. 

Featuring a cheerful rhyming text that guides readers through all the ways to be kind, Tomorrow I'll Be Kind is the perfect book for celebrating compassion, humanity and generosity. This uplifting book is a reminder to all readers, young and old, that the smallest kind gesture can make the biggest difference.

11th November Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day is observed in Australia on the 11th November to recall the date that World War 1 ended in 1918. In schools and public places at 11.00am on this day, a minute's silence is held and a bugler may play the Last Post. This pause in the day's bustle is to remember men and women who have died or suffered as the result of war. 

Our whole school observes Remembrance Day at 11.00am  and each class observes it in other ways too, usually by recalling the significance of poppies and making poppies to wear.

Although written in 2020, this is a good place to start. This video made by the Australian War Memorial is also suitable for young children.  This blog  entry from Bright Horizons will give you lots of ideas and a couple of poppy poems.

Britain, its allies Australia, New Zealand and Canada and America all fought in the first world war and that is why all have Remembrance Day, Armistice Day or Veteran's Day on the 11th November and why  it is often referred to in its literature for children.

In Scotland children may watch this video which is a good summary for all of us or read this book.

In Canada children might watch this video or read this book.

Last week I read Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick and Sophie Blackall to my Year 2 students and it starts with vet Harry Colebourn going off to World War 1 from Winnipeg in Canada. This sparked discussion about WW1 and who fought in it. Next week I will share The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston and Barbara Cooney with the same classes and here Ruthie's father is off fighting in WW1 and he writes her a letter telling her that the war finished on 11th November and that he is coming home to America.

These stories are a good way to connect young children to history and WW1 without dwelling on the conflict and fighting that is inevitable in war. Of course, there are other books that do this too.

However if you do want some picture books that are more specifically about Remembrance Day look for these:

• A Poppy for Pa by Rebecca Laing Zammit 

• Lest We Forget by Kerry Brown

• Australia Remembers by Allison Patterson

• Reflection  by Rebecca Sharpe Shelberg

• Where the Poppies Now Grow by Hilary Robinson

• Gallipoli by Kerry Greenwood

• The Poppy Lady  by Barbara Walsh

These are stories that feature poppies (no war):

• Poppy's Own Spot by Guido Van Genechten

• Ava's Poppy  by Marcus Pfister

• Poppy and the Blooms by Fiona Woodcock

17th November Take a Hike Day

What is a hike? A long walk?

Hiking is a long vigorous walk, usually on a track or trail in the countryside.  In Australia we are more likely to say we are going bushwalking. New Zealanders might say they are going tramping, the Scottish go rambling, but it doesn't matter what it's called, it is a worthwhile activity and a good chance to be outdoors communing with nature. Recently the students at my school had Camp Week. This used to mean Year 2 went to Camp, Year 1 camped on the oval at school and Kindergarten went to the bush one day a week all term, but it now means all three grades are involved in outdoor activities, such as those they would do on a camp, each day for a week, but they attend them at or near school and go home at night.

These activities do include a hike or bushwalking, so we did pull all the books off the shelves which may have helped students and teachers experience walking vicariously first. There were plenty of books to get students excited and thinking about what it meant to be hiking outdoors.

These are specifically Australian:

Then there's these:

And don't forget the wonder that comes from walking at night. When we did take Year 2 on camp we went for a walk at night around the campsite with torches and often it was the highlight when children wrote about camp. There are several children's books about night walks. Look for:

• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr

• The Night Walk by Marie Dorleans

• Night Walk by Alison Binks

• Night Walk  by Sara O'Leary and Ellie Arscott

• Night Walk to the Sea by Deborah Wiles and Daniel Miyares

• Seeking an Aurora  by Elizabeth Pulford and Anne Bannock

• A Good Night Walk by Elisha Cooper

2nd November Day of the Dead All Souls' Day

Day of the Dead combines the ancient Aztec custom of celebrating ancestors with All Souls' Day, a holiday that Spanish invaders brought to Mexico starting in the early 1500s.

Occasionally I get asked for books in Spanish because we have some Spanish speaking families and because Spanish is taught in the primary classes. 

Some Roman Catholics celebrate All Souls' Day, the day after All Saints' Day (All Hallows' Day)which is the day after All Hallows' Eve (or Halloween). The Year 1s at my school used to do a unit of inquiry which looked at celebrations and festivals around the world. For this reason I purchased these books for the library.  We already had some general celebrations books where these days  were mentioned but these added some  stories.

• The Day of the Dead  by Bob Barner (English and Spanish)

• Barrette: A Kite for the Day of the Dead  by Elisa Armado Our version is in English)

• Felipa and the Day of the Dead by Birte Muller 

• Gustavo, the Shy Ghost  by Flavia Z. Drago

• Clatter Bash! A Day of the Dead Celebration by Richard Keep

You could also add this new book

• Our Day of the Dead Celebration by Ana Aranda

or the one Duncan Tonatiuh has doing for publication next year 

• Dia de Muertos: Numeros: A Day of the Dead Counting Book