Tuesday 29 January 2019

Baby Book Club: Yummy Yucky!


 Welcome Baby Book Clubbers from far and near! This week, we read Leslie Patricelli's Yummy Yucky and had a ball. I rank Leslie's books very highly in my personal library of awesomeness and Yummy Yucky is an enduring favourite both at home and baby book clubs. The pictures are both funny and very relatable, and they are terrific conversation starters: about food, about taste, about likes and dislikes, about trying out new things… and avoiding other kinds of experiments (dog poo anyone?).
We had a lively reading, followed by a root around a bag full of pretend food and our activity for the day. The kids were given various pictures and had to decide whether they were of 'yummy' or 'yucky' things. There were no set answers, so everyone was free to decide they didn't like bananas… or loved bugs! To finish off, we took out some supermarket catalogues and let the babies look for more things to include in their chart. Again, plenty of interesting conversations arose and some kids discovered the inimitable joy of cutting with scissors.

Well done and thanks all!
As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos:

I Like Pie, I Like Cake by the Four Clefs: 


Food, Glorious Food - Oliver! By the Young People's Theater:


Laura Linney - Please can I keep it? 


The animated version of the Ravenous Beast


Check out this video about the Edible Book Festival:


Friday 25 January 2019

Putting our Stamp on Things



Baby Book Clubbers had great fun this morning following the adventures of Zebedee who looks high and low for his round, red balloon and makes plenty of new friends along the way.
We were really taken by the pictures and their stark contrast of black and white and red, and we had all sorts of conversations about the taste of strawberries and our favourite colours.
To flex our muscles (both physical and creative) we then moved on to stamping and populated our blanc and white forests with colourful friends for Zebedee. Mainly dinosaurs, but really friendly ones!
As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos. Enjoy!

It Only Takes One Night to Make a Balloon Your Friend by Lunch Money 



Steve Lee - Grab A Balloon - Miller Made Music Showcase

Colorful Time-Lapse of Hot Air Balloons in New Mexico | Short Film Showcase 

Wednesday 16 January 2019

Looking back

What a pleasure it was to be Writer in Residence for Meath County Libraries with Creative Ireland!
The proof is in the vid!

Well done and a massive thank you to all who took part in the Poetry Treasure Hunts, Book Club sessions, creative writing workshops and especially to the two classes who made my Mondays such fun out in Dunsany and Enfield. You rock!
Librarians, teachers and other helpers, a big 'merci' too. This was a team effort and so worth it!
Until next time…
:)