Today is national tree day. What will you be doing?
Local councils run great events where you can have the opportunity to plant a tree, learn about local trees that best suit your area and some councils even give away free mulch and trees for your backyard!
However – we can’t always make these events so why don’t you look around and see if you have any books at home that might inspire more thought and care towards these living things that we cannot do without.
Try one of these books:
Trees by Lemniscates
Where the Forest Meets the sea by Jeannie Baker.
Bronwyn Bancroft’s poetry brings the vibrant colours to life as we sail through shadows,ferns, clouds and raindrops.
Each page brings another part of Australia to life with shades, hues and patterns.
As you read Colours of Australia, a calmness sweeps over the readers, immersing them in the Australian landscape.
We loved reading this story, looking at the different shades of colour and wondering about the beauty of Australia.
This is an excellent resource for anyone who wishes to link picture books to nature through Indigenous art techniques.
So how does this link to sustainability?
This book encourages us to go outside – everyone! There is so much research pointing us in the direction of outside play. We need to get more in touch with the land, the plants and the animals that are part of our world. Nature is important in so many different ways. See my blog post on nature play.
Compare pictures of some wonderful Australian locations and create them in your own way using colours and shades like Bronwyn Bancroft has.
Go to your local paint shop and grab some paint cards. You can find so many different shades of every colour and this can help children to discern between the different shades and how they wish to use them.
Look a local river, a river in the daintree, a river in a farming area and a river in flood through the desert. Notice the different colours of the river at different times and different locations.
Learn about Bronwyn Bancroft and her amazing artworks.
This book contains fantastic vocabulary to start drawing on the importance of synonyms in creative writing. Create your own synonym wall for each drawing in this book.
Touch and feel words – which words in this story make us ‘feel’ the word? Discuss and find more of these.
How do colours make you feel? What if you had synaesthesia. How would this effect how you ‘see’ colours?
Happy reading!
What is a Bogtrotter you might ask?
He is a delightful creature that lives in the bog – a gloomy, marshy, mushy bog! Bogtotter, written by Margaret Wild is a book that focuses on belonging, trying new things, playing outdoors, loneliness and discovery.
The illustrations by Judith Rossell are marvellous, really bringing to life the Bogtrotter and his feelings.
The reader steps through into the life of the Bogtrotter, watching him start off doing the same thing every day, not knowing how to make a change. It is through talking to other animals around him and picking a flower that he sees that there is more to his bog.
So how can we use this book?
SUSTAINABILITY
LITERACY
Before you read:
What is a Bogtrotter? What is a bog? How will picking a flower change his life?
As you read
Have a set of word cards (see my store) out that can be found during the reading (you may like to read once without the words so children can enjoy the story). As the words are found, discuss the meaning using skills of inferring. Group these words into groups of your choice (verbs, adjectives, feelings etc)
After you read
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
LINKS TO CURRICULUM
LITERACY
Discuss characters and events in a range of literary texts and share personal responses to these texts, making connections with students’ own experiences (ACELT1582)
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning about key events, ideas and information in texts that they listen to, view and read by drawing on growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (ACELY1660)
Create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and diagrams (ACELY1661)
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
Describe how respect, empathy and valuing diversity can positively influence relationships (ACPPS037)
Participate in outdoor games and activities to examine how participation promotes a connection between the community, natural and built environments, and health and wellbeing (ACPPS041)
Recognise how media and important people in the community influence personal attitudes, beliefs, decisions and behaviours (ACPPS057)
SUSTAINABILITY
OI.5 World views are formed by experiences at personal, local, national and global levels, and are linked to individual and community actions for sustainability.
OI.7 Actions for a more sustainable future reflect values of care, respect and responsibility, and require us to explore and understand environments.
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The Magnificent Tree is a beautiful collaboration by Nick Bland and Stephen Michael King. It was published in 2012 by scholastic but is ties in well with National Tree Day this weekend.
The book’s main characters display a loving and respectful relationship between a granddaughter and her grandfather. The young girl loves doing things simply and the grandfather loves ideas that are ‘big, brave and brilliant’ but together they can work together to come up with wonderful ideas!
One day Bonny and Pop decide they need something so they can see the birds better. Pop thinks BIG and starts to draw his ideas whilst Bonny thinks simply and plants a seed with care.
We can draw many different teaching points from this book whilst enjoying the fun illustrations.
SUSTAINABILITY
THINKING – DISCUSSION POINTS
SCIENCE
This is a heart warming story which shows a loving and respectful relationship between grandfather and granddaughter. A great one to read on grandparents day!
It also shows that simple ideas can be wonderful so encourage those simple ideas from your children and students as from little things big things grow!!
Fraser Island is a large Sandy Island that many people love to visit for it’s pristine waters and sandy terrain. However there once was a tribe that lived here – the Butchulla Tribe.
The Legends of Moonie Jarl, contains legends from the Butchulla tribe that were used to teach young Indigenous children about the origins of birds, animals and plants.
The difference with this tribe was that as the stories were told, the signs and symbols were drawn into the dirt. These symbols were then woven into their dilly bags so that the stories remained part of their every day lives.
As we read the stories within this book it was interesting trying to interpret the pictures which accompanied most of the legends.
Learning about our Indigenous past is important for all Australians and we need to do this more often with our young children. Many of these stories tell us ways in which the land can be cared for and how we can respect the native flora and fauna.
So what can you do?
To help create the story think about:
Many aspects of the curriculum can be infused with learning of our Indigenous past
OI.5 – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ ways of life are uniquely expressed through ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing.
OI.3 – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have holistic belief systems and are spiritually and intellectually connected to the land, sea, sky and waterways.
My Green Day by Melanie Walsh is a vibrant and fun book for readers of all ages to enjoy.
With hidden pictures, flaps to lift and holes this picture book is not only an informative book but it is also fun!
My Green Day outlines through picture, simple sentences and colourful illustrations how we can all try to be more environmentally friendly in our every day activities.
These simple tips include having a compost bin at home, drying clothes on the clothes line, making presents rather than buying them and eating all of our food!
Children will enjoy these tips and I am sure they will feel that it is something that they can do at home, quite simply.
So how can we have more fun with this book?
Persuasive writing
Imaginative text
Informative text
Numeracy
Science
A forest by Marc Martin immediately captured my attention with the creatively painted forest on the front cover.
The tiny trees that envelop the front cover , each one completely different from each other, have been drawn with water colours, texta, pencil and ink.
A forest tells a story through simple words and captivating pictures about a forest being destroyed due to human greed but then growing again through human care. A true story of hope and empowerment.
I loved reading this story to my children and they enjoyed listening and looking at the illustrations. It is a poignant story and one which helps to grow awareness of the importance of the natural world just outside out doorstep.
It’s a brave story with tender words and memorable images. It’s a must read for anyone who loves a good picture book with a message of hope.
So, how can we have fun with this story before, during and after we have read it?
Thinking skills & sustainability
Literacy
Mathematics
Visual Arts
Sustainability
Loss and Hope.
Children look at the world differently to adults. They notice so much more than we do and appreciate the small things that we overlook.
Peter Carnavas has written a poignant picture book that shows how much joy nature can give. The images add more depth to the well written story, they are simple and green – highlighting the natural world in the main characters life.
This story drew my thoughts to life as an adult compared to that of a child. As adults we can become caught up in our jobs, money and homes and never stop to realise that there may not be a tree down the street, a bee buzzing in the flowers or a native bird singing in the backyard.
Last tree in the city is the story of a boy who loves to climb the only tree in the city until one day he finds it has been removed. The young boy is upset but demonstrates resilience by not wallowing in despair, but moving on with hope to spread a new green around the city.
This book hits the mark with the current awareness that many city dwellers have with the lack of green space. I have seen in my own city of Sydney that cities are slowly moving towards a greener colour with planter boxes growing on roofs, small trees on the sidewalk and mini herb gardens aside cafes and homes. This book shows that a little bit of green can go a long way in changing the mood of the world.
This book is a heartwarming story full of hope and gives children (and adults) the belief that there is nothing too small that they can do to help improve the world in which they live in.
Teaching tips
NSW Curriculum links:
Geography
Stage 1: Features of places.
Stage 2: The Earth’s environment
Stage 3: A diverse and connected world.
Science
Stage 1: Earth and space, Living world
Stage 2: Living world.
PD
Personal health choices & Problem solving.
