The bird edition part 2

Hi everyone,

I hope you’ve had a great start to the school year and are starting to get an idea of what you will be teaching and the students you are working with.

Picture books are a great way to excite children about a topic and I have two to share with you today. I hope they are helpful and please get in touch if there are any questions about these books, other topic areas to use some books in or the areas of Gifted Education or Guided Inquiry.

Swifty: The super-fast Parrot by Stephanie Owen Reeder & Astrid Hicks.

I loved reading this book out loud - so many wonderful adjectives and descriptive verbs to show the reader how the Swift Parrot moves about from a nest hollow with her babies to a migration north during Winter and then back down south to Tasmania to breed during spring and summer.

Swifty is the only surviving baby parrot and as the reader watches her journey, they will also realise just how difficult it can be to survive in the wild with larger predators, loss of habitat through land clearing & urban development.

Young readers will see the beauty of Australia and the people who are helping the Swift parrot to survive in the wild.

Image taken from: Wilderness.org.

This is a great picture book for ages 4-9 and is a great asset to not only the Science classroom but can also be used for mapping in Geography & as a mentor text for descriptive language.

A shorebird Flying Adventure by Jackie Kerin & Milly Formby

Written in first person voice, children ages 5-12 will enjoying hearing about what it is like to be a Microlight pilot who loves shorebirds!

Milly Formby is a pilot & she wrote the story to share her love of migratory shorebirds. I’ve said this book can be read by a large age range, primarily because you can draw different ideas from the story.

The words are written in an informative & educational way yet the language is accessible to younger readers. The illustrations throughout the book and fantastic and really support the writing with birds drawn in detail and labels to show the names of the different types of shorebirds. There are labelled diagrams, maps and fun facts so even those who cannot engage in the whole story - can draw learning from here.

This is an excellent picture book to use in Geography lessons as well as Science. I loved the different conversations and ideas that came out of this and also the learning of how amazing these birds are with their endurance & flying skills

And finally - writing!

Working alongside an author is a great way to excite children about reading and writing and I’ve just recently come across a great new course that has been designed for budding authors but I believe will be fantastic also for teachers to sharpen their craft and also students to be inspired by.

How often do you encourage your students to write what they want to write? Be inspired by an image and just write away?

A course - run by Zanni Louise is a great way to inspire you as a teacher to teach creative writing in a fun way. The modules are designed to walk through building a setting, the characters & the plot narrative. She gives examples of how to ignite creativity and where to take small ideas.

I’ve recently participated in the course and I can highly recommend it, not only for my own writing skills but also in the way I will approach our narrative writing sessions in the classroom.

• Check it out here & let me know what you think. (No affiliate links or revenue for me through this promotion - just a love of writing & the course!) https://www.zannilouise.com/sunshine-house-book-course

Thanks again for reading,

Vanessa