10th October Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is an international celebration held on the first Tuesday in October of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It is named in honour of Ada Lovelace as she is thought to be the world’s first computer programmer , an amazing achievement given that she died long ago in 1852.  from Its goal is to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths," and to "create new role models for girls and women" in these fields.

The date was founded by Suw Charman-Anderson back in 2009. One of her reasons for creating this date is because she was concerned that females in the tech world were invisible. Instead of highlighting the problem, she decided that the best way to tackle this would be to highlight unseen women, shouting loud about all of the incredible things that these women have accomplished. It is not hard to see why Ada Lovelace was the obvious choice to kick things off!

There are so many books that you could use to celebrate this day! There are biographies about many female maths and technology whizzes and even more about famous female scientists. (see some suggestions here)

Start with those about Ada

Then read about Katherine Johnson and her colleagues of Hidden Figures fame.

Next do you know these mathematicians? They were trailblazers for the girls of today!

• Emily Roebling

• Mary Jackson

• Ray Montague

• Edith Clarke

• Emmy Noether

• Sophie Germain

 

• Sophie Kowalevski

• Maryam Mirzakhani

10th October Metric Day

On 10/10, National Metric Day recognises the metric system, its history, and its benefits.

Metric uses decimals as a method of measuring mass, distance, and volume. The metric system is a system of measurement used in most countries of the world except the United States and a few other countries. Though Simon Stevin, a Flemish mathematician, first suggested such a system in his 1586 publication De Thiende (The Tenth), centuries passed before the metric system became an accepted form of measurement. The metric system was introduced by France in 1799 and it’s an original, decimal-based (based on powers of 10) measurement format based on metres and kilograms. Base units in the metric system include kilograms, metres, and litres. The metric system also uses the Kelvin scale (or the Celsius scale) to measure the temperature. The decimal-based prefixes in the metric system include milli, centi, deci, and kilo. 

In Britain and the USA they still use Imperial System miles for measurements, despite happily adapting to kilos for weight. For this reason some information books in the school library have measurements that Australian children do not recognise. I try to make sure books have metric measurements (System Internationale) or both. 

In the Maths curriculum for students who are under eight years old there is lots of reasons to stress the number 10 and multiples of it, so we do have books in the library which provide provocation and  discussion.

Counting for very young children starts with games with fingers and toes and that is why nursery rhymes such as 1,2,3,4,5, once I caught a fish alive, this little piggy went to market, there were ten in the bed and the little one said, and Mem Fox's Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes are so much fun.

Here's some books that are in the library which will help explore the number ten and the metric system:

• Ten Apples Up on Top  by Dr Seuss

• Ants at the Picnic: Counting by Tens  by Michael Dahl

• Toasty Toes: Counting by Tens  by Michael Dahl

• Ten Fat Sausages  by Michelle Robinson

• Little Miss Muffet Counts to Ten by Emma Chichester Clark

• Two Ways to Count to Ten by Ruby Dee

• Ten Red Apples  by Pat Hutchins

• Ten Cars and a Million Stars  by Teresa Heapy

• From Zero to Ten: the Story of Numbers by Vivian French    

• Number Rhymes: Tens and Teens by Hannah Shaw

• One Hundred Angry Ants by Elinor Pinzes

• How Long is a Whale?  by Alison Limentani

• How Far Can a Kangaroo Jump? by Alison Limentani

• How Much Does a Ladybird Weigh? by Alison Limentani

Here's some that are specifically about the metric system:

• The Metric System  by David A Adler and Edward Miller

• The Metric System by Paul Challen 

• Luke's Flying Start  by Michelle Parsons and Cesar 

 

7th October Love Your Bookshop Day

As you know I love bookshops...they are my happy place! I have certainly been in some very good independent ones in the last couple of months. I do still try to most of the school library shopping at bookshops, one in particular because I like to see what I think I want to buy before I purchase it. For this reason I hope independent bookshops continue to exist. I don't want to buy sight unseen online.

I have written about this day and given book suggestions before, here, but here's some that I forgot to mention or which are new to me, since then.

• The Bookshop Mice  by Robert Starling.

• Mr Leopard's Bookshop  by Alexa Brown and Julia Christians

• Dakota Crumb and the Secret Bookshop by Jamie Michalak and Kelly Murphy

and some 'magical' novels for 8+

• The Travelling Bookshop  by Katrina Nannested and Cheryl Orsini (4 books)

• The Bookshop at the Back of Beyond  by Amy Sparkes

• The Magic Story Shop  by Katje Frixe

• The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson

6th October Noodle Day

October is Pasta Month! Today is Noodle Day! I haven't written about this before because I have written about pasta and dumplings on their celebratory day. Spaghetti has a day of its own too, on 4th January, but as it's in the school holidays, I thought today might be a good time to revisit noodles and spaghetti.

Can you believe that noodles have been around for over 4,000 years? Noodles are popular all over the world and range in shape from flat, to round, to twisted, to sheets, to tubes, and many more. The oldest historical mention of noodles appears in a dictionary from the third century A.D. in China. 

Regardless of where the noodle originated one of the most alluring things about noodles is how varied they are. In China, you have chefs that pull the thinnest of noodles called la mian, while in Italy, you have broad flat pasta layered with bolognese and béchamel sauce, better known as lasagna. And both are noodles!

It is very easy to put together a display of picture books for this topic. Use key words such as noodles, pasta, spaghetti and dumplings in your library catalogue search and you'll be surprised. 

Start with some newer ones such as:

• The Story of Pasta  by Steven Guarnaccia

• Pasta!  by Felice Arena and Beatrice Cerocchi

• The Great Pasta Escape by Miranda Paul and Javier Joaquin

• Rigatoni the Pasta Cat  by Michael Rosen and Tony Ross

• Spaghetti Hunters  by Morag Hood

• My Spaghetti ABC  by Deborah Niland

• Spaghetti! An Interactive Recipe Book by  Lotta Nieminen

• I Want to Be Spaghetti by Keira Wright-Ruiz

Then for fun search out

• Spaghetti With the Yeti  by Adam and Charlotte Guillain and Lee Wildish 

• Noodle Bear  by Mark Gravas

• Noodlephant  by Jacob Kramer and K-Fai Steele

And my favourite:

• Noodle Magic  by Roseanne Greenfield Thong and Meilo So

4th - 10th October World Space Week

World Space Week 2023 will inspire students worldwide to study STEM and business, and offer space companies the opportunity to recruit the workforce needed for the expanding commercial space industry. The theme for World Space Week 2023, “Space and Entrepreneurship”, recognises the growing significance of the commercial space industry in space, and the increasing opportunities for space entrepreneurship and new benefits of space developed by space entrepreneurs. With miniaturization and decreasing launch costs, it is now possible for a small business to build and launch a small satellite, and for entrepreneurs to create valuable new data products for governments and industry.

The concept for this 2023 poster was crafted by a high school student in Croatia, Mia Platužić, who won the open call for poster concepts.

Good week to use Astronauts Zoom!

Who knows one day, a child you are teaching now may go into space. Katherine Bennell-Pegg, Australian Space Agency Director, made history as the first Australian-born woman to be trained as an astronaut by an international space agency. She went to school on Sydney's northern beaches. Dr. Meganne Christian is also an Australian astronaut. She came to Australia as a very young child and did her education here in NSW. Both of these amazing women were taught by teachers like us.

Australia isn't known for being forerunners in space exploration, research or entrepreneurship, but we certainly have some picture books by Australian authors and illustrators that tempt students to explore space more. Start with these and keep going...

• Give me Some Space  by Philip Bunting

• Chooks in Space  by Chris Collin

• Bear in Space  by Deborah Abela and Marjorie Crosby-Fairall

• Blast Off!  by Shelly Unwin and Ben Wood

• City of Light by Julia Lawrenson and Heather Potter

• Touch the Moon by Phil Cummings and Coral Tulloch

• Moonwalkers  by Mark Greenwood and Terry Denton        

• Count the Stars by Raewyn Caisley and Gabriel Evans

• Stellarphant by James Foley

• Mr Chicken Goes to Mars  by Leigh Hobbs

For students who dream of being an astronaut

• Astronaut Handbook  by Meghan McCarthy

• How to be an Astronaut by Sheila Kanani and Sol Linero

• Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed and Stasia Burrington

• The Astronaut With a Song for the Stars by Julia Finley Mosca and Daniel Rieley

• The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield and the Fan Brothers

• Reaching for the Moon by Buzz Aldrin and Wendell Minor

• One Giant Leap by Robert Burleigh and Mike Wimmer

And two new books that are due soon

• We are all Astronauts by Kate Pankhurst

• How to Eat in Space by Helen Taylor and Stevie Lewis

4th October Taco Day

 Meet this amazing Jelly Cat toy...yes it's a taco!

I was so tempted when I saw it in a book shop to buy it, but it is so expensive once the Australian dollar exchange was applied. Nevertheless, it was so tempting as part of a book display on tacos. I have written about Taco Day before here, but there's been a few new books to add to your stock of taco books.

• A Wild Taco Tuesday  by Sarah M Hall 

and the latest in the Pizza an Taco series

• Pizza and Taco: Dare to be Scared! by Stephen Shaskan

• Dragons Love Taco Tuesdays  by O M Wolf

• Taco Truck Snack and Find by Rubie Crowe and Josh Cleland (Look, find, and laugh as you follow a taco-obsessed mole character to the beach, the city marathon, a tailgate party, and other busy places loaded with silly food trucks. Does he ever get his prized taco? 

Jelly Cat has a slice of pizza too, just

perfect for Pizza and Taco book fans!

P.S. Look what I just read about. A new book by Frank Asch.

Please be in paperback and cheaper soon!

3rd October The Big Draw 1st -31st October

I have just returned from a holiday overseas. The pretence was to visit my daughter who lived in London, but while there we had a holiday in Portugal. Of course while away I visited many bookshops. and I was pleasantly surprised by how good the were at promoting children's books. They had a good stock, the children's book section was often closer to the front of the shop than it would be here, there was always children's titles in the window and they often had a special display. This was the case in both England and Portugal.

While in England I noticed that a couple of the book shops had special displays of books about drawing. Now I know that wasn't coincidental. During October in England they have a festival of drawing known as The Big Draw. "The Big Draw is a pioneering visual literacy charity dedicated to raising the profile of drawing as a tool for wellbeing, thought, creativity, social and cultural engagement."

Thus the books on drawing. There were books about how to draw by well known illustrators such as

Rob Biddulph

• My First Draw with Rob 

• Draw with Rob Amazing Animals 

• Draw with Rob in Space 

Charise Mericle Harper

• I Cannot Draw a Horse

• I Cannot Draw a Bicycle

Marion Deuchars

• Draw This!

• Art Play

• Draw, Paint, Print Like Great Artists.

James Mayhew

• Learn to Draw with Katie

Axel Scheffler

 How to Draw Gruffly and Friends

Ed Emberley

• How to Draw Monsters and More Scary Stuff

• Drawing Book of Faces

Mo Willems

• Doodling 101

• We're in an Art-ivity Book

Donovan Bixley

• Draw Some Awesome

Nick Sharratt

• How to Draw

Bluey

• Bluey: How to Draw

And of course there are lots of illustrators showing children how to draw on Youtube. Watch and see your children have fun. The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education CLPE has amazing resources online. Sign up for free.

If you have children in your class who don't want to draw or who say they can't draw search out drawing books about things they are interested in eg unicorns, cars, trucks, dinosaurs, animals, there's a book for nearly every topic.

There are wonderful books about drawing that will be good to read aloud and discuss such as:

• Everyone Can Draw  by Fifi Kuo

• Little Pea's Drawing School by Davide Cali and Sébastien Mourrain

• Dinosaurs Don't Draw by Elli Woollard and Steven Denton

• When I Draw a Panda  by Amy June Bates

There's even more drawing books to explore here.