Happy Book Week!

It’s Book Week again. I was thrilled to have been invited to last Friday’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA)’s Book of the Year Award presentations for 2016 at Teachers Federation House, hosted by CBCA NSW.

Classes at Penrith PS have been busily creating displays for the school library. Every few minutes, another display arrives and we seek out an ideal spot for it. This has been a tradition at the school for many decades.

Apart from the links at Mrs Mac’s website and the Kids & Books blog, here are some useful Youtube clips to help us celebrate “Australia! Story Country”, the 2016 theme:


Story Country – Book Week 2016

Read All Day for Book Week 2016 (Guildford Grammar School)

A Vimeo for Silver, Information: Sticky (Phasmid)


Gold, Early Childhood: Mr Huff by Anna Walker – book trailer (Official)


Gold, Early Childhood: Mr Huff trailer (Unofficial)


Play School – Mr Huff – Benita, Karen, Luke, Andrew, Eddie, Leah, Zindzi and Justine

Revisiting the ugly duckling

The last time The ugly duckling came along in our K-2 literacy cycle, I made use of some personal photos taken of a Hans Christian Andersen memorial statue at Sydney’s Observatory Hill.


The ugly duckling – Silly symphony Walt Disney 1939


Our Khaki Campbell ducks~


Khaki Campbell… ducks a must see!!!

Make way for ducklings, the famous picture book by Robert McCloskey, and based on a real life event, is also immortalized in statue form at Boston Common, USA. These statues get dressed thematically at various times of the year.

More about light for Stage 3

For the Stage 3 science & technology unit, “Light me up”, here are some more Youtube clips that may prove useful.


What color is a mirror?


3 easy kids’ science experiments with magnifying glass


The science of rainbows


How a prism works to make rainbow colors


Special LED lights in infrared and ultraviolet spectrum


Rainbow walking water – easy kids science experiment