Lost for words – Natalie Russell

Book Name:      Lost for Words
Author:              Natalie Russell
Illustrator:        Natalie Russell
Publisher:         MacMillan
Published:        1st March, 2014

My favourite rating: 

What do I like about this book?

Amazing story to remind us, as adults, not to force children to do something that they are not ready to do, or skilful in; as children, to embrace your OWN talent. Most of us do not discover our talents in a day. With the trial-and-error, you will eventually be amazed to find out your expertise.

Love the characters in this book: TAPIRS, Giraffe, Hippo and Flamingo. Rarely we could see such a distinctive animal to be the main character. A good chance to introduce it to our young ones. (Don’t judge me, I do not even know this animal’s name until now, not even in my own language. I need some help from parents I suppose!)  With the safari-like environment, and those supporting characters, I am guessing the setting is in the Central America. Tell me if I am wrong. It will be great to have an emergent project on Central America (safari) habitats.

Everyone have different talents: As said above, discovery takes time. Encourage children to be patience in finding their uniqueness. Some might find it in their early age, some might be already an adult when they realise. You don’t need to have the same skill as your friends to be friends. (Q&A section)

Friendship: Friends can be from different races, ethic group and family background. you might look different from your friends, physically or intellectually. Doesn’t matter what differences you and your friends have, most importantly, you support each others.

Extra information:
This book was one of the winners under the category of Bookbug Readers (3-7 years old) in 2014 Scottish children’s book awards, together with Princess Penelope and the Runaway Kitten by Alison Murray and Robot Rumpus by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Ross Collins (READ THE NEWS HERE!)

Want to know how much others appreciate this book?
Goodreads

Want some for information about Tapirs?
National Geographic

Want to listen to the book?
By Natalie Russell the Author

Vagrantgirl xx

P.S.: When you read the book to your child/children, try to sing the song that flamingo wrote! They will love it!

P.P.S.: Trying to organise the activities for the last mentioned book – I’m Australian too by Mem Fox. In the mean time, let me introduce more good books.

 

Activity: after the story, let the class use their way to write something (R-2) better have some guideline 

The importance of literacy in early childhood education

I was reading this fabulous guest post from Pages and Margins about the effect of the environmental factor (having a reading habit atmosphere) to early childhood education and I can’t wait to share with you. Link is just at the end of the post.

I am not a parent myself. But I am so glad to read what parents, who love to read, think about literacy. More importantly, us as a teacher, would really love all the parents on board, so that it does not only help children to build up their communication skills, but also add fun and ideas to their dramatic play, provide practical information to their lives and build up their creativity!

I am so proud of those parents who give their child(ren) 110% support in early childhood education. That is not easy, friends.

Remember to check the link below to see WHAT THE PARENTS THINK ABOUT LITERACY!

Vagrantgirl xx

The Influence of Books in Early Childhood by Katie Fitzgerald During the past few months, I have read two wonderful vintage books about the influence of reading on families with young children. Annis Duff’s Bequest of Wings (1944) is a lovely reflection on her family’s relationship to all different books as her children grew from […]

via A Reading Life: {Guest Post} The Influence of Books in Early Childhood — Pages and Margins

Mem Fox – I’m Australian too

Book Name:      I’m Australian too
Author:              Mem Fox
Illustrator:        Ronojoy Ghosh
Publisher:         Scholastic Australia
Published:        1st March, 2017

My favourite rating: 

What do I like about this book?
I read the latest post from littleBIGreads about this book and I am absolutely loving it! If you want to have a sneak peek of the book, scroll down to the bottom and I have already attached a Youtube link for you. But I am telling you, I am definitely buying this book because of a few reasons:

• love how it presents Australia as a cultural diverse country and we are proud of it
• prefect book for Harmony day
• Even children as young as 3 years old, I am going to read this book again and again to them because the pictures are attractive and the story relates to their lives
• love to introduce this book to my Reception – Year 2 class, explaining and exploring their own history and important events of different cultures
• Love the use of words and sentence structures: Rhymes and repeat phases
• Lots of Australian use of words to make children feel familiar
• Raise children awareness in current affairs – Refugee: “If your country let me in”; Syria: “But then we have to flee.”
• Love the illustration: the use of colours plus it is very Australian like! (Outback / City / beaches / different cities in Australia / varieties of food…)

 

There are a lot of reasons pushing me to own this fantastic book and my brain has been filled up with activities ideas based on it. I can’t wait to share them with you soon.

If you would love to buy the book like I do, Mem Fox’s website have the button BUY NOW and it will bring you to another pop up website. It is safe and secure!

Coming up next: Very High possibility on activity (maybe activities) for this book!

Vagrantgirl xx

Being me! That’s important!

Like how I usually begin a new blog every time, I’m very ambitious. I tell myself I will stick to my plan, write two blog posts every week and start doing those social media thing. However, the passion always died after a few weeks because I ran out of ideas or I really don’t have time to do it (FYI: I was a full-time student plus work nearly full time by then. Crazy, huh?). I have graduated now and am working part-time in hospitality while doing relief teaching in schools, I’m still quite full on. But deep down in my heart, the little flame doesn’t stop burning. I want to share my passion with everyone, and I want people to go along this journey with me if they have the same belief.

Here, let me present my new blog

Why am I starting this blog and what is my passion?

I grow up in a family where literacy is highly valued. Me and my brother were taught to find fun and knowledge between lines, so as my cousins. However, since technology is getting more advanced, I sometimes doubt myself, “why are you spending so much time reading here and there on the Internet? Some of the information doesn’t even help you grow intellectually!” I can read about a celebrity for the whole night on my bed, browsing their social media accounts and YouTube videos, plus admiring their success. Do I truly want my life to be like this? Just admiring others?

(To help you think in my shoes: I am an Early Childhood Teacher) In university, I had a group of pre-service teachers who had similar passion as me. We gathered to prepare some literacy-related activities around children books because it could help us build up our portfolio in teaching, however I want more than that. I had my placement in a primary school which has a high percentage of family with low socioeconomic status and English as second language. Parents might not have time to nurture their child(children) at home or they could not help because they are learning the language too. Therefore, our responsibility in school gets heavier and that’s why I value literacy more as well. I can totally see when the door of literacy is opened, the child find it enjoyable not only when they read, but also when they are able to write their stories.

I want to promote the importance of literacy in early years, like many people already do. Let me be selfish once, I want to do it in my way. Let me learn together with you to push literacy further, and let people celebrate the joy of being literate.