Poetry Slam Dunk

 

What a ball we've had for Poetry Day Ireland in the Oblate Hall in Inchicore, throwing balls and words around!

Thanks to all in SMGS and in Mercy for being game, to Poetry Ireland for the support and the funding, and to the RTÉ News and Morning Ireland crew for tagging along.

Here is the poem(written by me!) that was read on air.

Reinventing...

The last few months have been many things and one of them was a very steep learning curve and a complete recalibration of how us kids' writers and creatives do our job. Because it's not just sitting at your desk all day and typing or doodling away, it's not just time alone thinking and dreaming and imagining. It's also, of course, getting out there, meeting young readers and writers and their families, their teachers, their librarians, their teddies! 

With 'out there' being essentially out of bounds, we've have to reinvent how we do things. Over the past while, I've been busy experimenting with online workshops (junior book club, toddler time, writing club, even Zoom baby book clubs!), pre-record videos (writing challenges, desincarnated residencies...) and also outdoors events. 

Those are the new ways we'll get to reach out to kids, families, schools, libraries and festival goers for the next while. It's been intense and intensive and, sometimes, very enjoyable!

So, teachers, librarians, festival programmers, if you want to keep young readers and writers engaged, chat to a creative today, they'll have come up with something! (such as my Poetry Treasure Hunt or my Ninja Writer's Workout, more here)

Keeping the little ones busy: Pirates!

How are you all getting on? Have you begun to lose count of the days in confinement and to forget what the old normal was yet? It feels a bit like that here...
To help with the long days, I'll be sharing some of the tried and tested activities we've enjoyed in Baby Book Club. You'll need very few materials and could get hours of entertainment out of these!

Today, I give you: Piratic adventures!
There tons of books about pirates and you possibly have some lying around. If you don't, it doesn't really matter: there's still plenty of fun to be had. You can enlist the help of older kids there as well, as they can push the pretend play into some detail.

Today, pretend you're all part of a pirate crew.
First, you are going to need a ship. The couch could do very well, or bunk beds, or under the kitchen table, or, the ultimate holy grail of pretend play, you might have a cardboard box lying around? Decorate it together. What could you use for sails? Do you want a flag? And what will you call your ship?

Next you'll have to look the part. What you need is a hat! Take a sheet of A3 paper if you have it (if you don't, tape together two A4) and fold it in half. Draw a piratic hat shape and cut it out. Unfold it again and let your little one decorate it. They can draw, use stickers, stampers, whatever you have to hand! Refold the paper and staple the sides together, it should sit nice and snug on your young pirate's head, as in the pic above.

Finally you'll need a place to go, in other words, a treasure map! Print an island shape off the internet or draw one yourself and add detail to it with your child. Trees, rivers, mountains, sheep, scribbles, etc. and don't forget to place an X to mark the spot!

Now you're ready to set sail! Remember to use your best piratic words (you'd be amazed how many of those really young kids know!). You can find more in this English/Pirate dictionary and you can also generate your own pirate name over here!

Why not round off the day's adventures with a bit of water play? Take out a basin, pour some water in it and throw in plastic containers, slotted spoons, colander, anything that will pour in an interesting fashion. Hours of focused fun guaranteed! (You may want to strip your pirate down to the bare essentials first, though)

As before, here are a few more links to keep the fun going! :)

Peter Pan - A Pirate's life  

Pirates of the Caribbean Orchestral Medley, He's a Pirate  

Flannery Brothers Children's Music - "Pirate or Parrot?"

Hang on in there, me hearties!

Creativity Bingo!

Feeling overwhelmed by all the things you and your kids 'should be doing'?
Can't face another day of cleaning up after a bake-off or a water-colour marathon?
And yet worried about your young ones missing out and not doing enough creative activities?
It's true, being creative will help with your energy levels, your problem-solving, your mental health and more. But creativity isn't just about making art and big complicated enterprises. It can be found in everyday activities (like brushing your teeth or getting dressed); it can be practised and grown.
Creativity is a state of mind that will get you (whatever your age) through times happy and hard.
To help you spot and create creative moments in what you and your family are already doing, here is a handy Creativity Bingo put together by illustrator Margaret Anne Suggs and yours truly.
We hope that you find it helpful, useful, stress-free and a bit of fun!
Feel free to share and let us know how you get on!
Hang on in there, one and all,
Juliette and Mags

Keeping Little Ones Busy: Bringing the Library Home!

No creche, no play group, no storytime, no play dates… The days and weeks ahead are going to feel like one very long break-less, nap-less afternoon.
That said, once everyone has adjusted to the new routine, there are really fun, simple things you can do to keep your little one busy, amused and, yes, learning!

Over the next while, I will share here some of the tried and tested activities we've enjoyed in Baby Book Club. You'll need very few materials and could get hours of entertainment out of these!

Today, I give you: Bringing the Library Home or… Solo Book Clubbing!

If your child is especially missing their trips to the library, why not recreate a story-time setting at home by simply placing teddies and/or other family members in a comfy circle and following the routine you are used to.

In my sessions, we always start with the same songs (one to say good morning, a couple to get moving and get energy out of our systems, one to calm down and get ready to listen), before moving on to the books, anything between 1 and 4, depending on the group. Pick up some books, ask your child to choose some too, and off you go!

Follow your little one's lead: if they want to spend ages poring over the pictures of one story, let them at it. Ask them questions, point and name the things in the illustrations and listen to what they have to say. If they want to skip ahead to the next book, you can always come back to it at a later stage. And if they want to tell the story themselves, your work here is done!

To finish up, you can throw in a craft. One lovely activity that works with really young kids is to get them to make their own book. Fold and staple together a couple of A4 sheets, bring out old magazines and newspapers, some glue and kiddie scissors and off they go! They love cutting (so do the parents, admit it), lifting pictures from supermarket catalogues and messing about with glue.

When you're done, make sure you share your little one's work with other family members (in real life, but also remotely) and display it somewhere around the house: on the fridge or on your kid's bookshelves...

For a perfect finish, you might want to blow some bubbles to mark the end of the 'session' and provide even more lasting fun!

Prolong the fun with these songs and videos!

The Library Song, a fun kids’ song from New Zealand. 

Lil B Dub / The Rapping Bookworm, a thing of silliness!

Martians Discover a Book, classic Sesame Street madness.

Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk Parody: Unread Book (you’ll never look at your librarian in the same way!)

The Mount Desert Island High School version of Meghan Trainor's "All About The Bass/Books" 

Hang on in there!

Let It Snow

The babies braved the snow, the rain and everything in between today! We, very aptly, looked at books with a wintery feel where polar bears featured prominently. We explored textures and our senses with Usbourne's This is Not My Polar Bear and enjoyed another 'touchy-feely' book, Making Tracks: Snow by Cocoretto, this time following grooves in the sturdy cardboard with our fingers and guessing who might me hiding behind the flaps.

We also made connections with our bear-loving siblings and had a lovely sensory moment playing with cotton wool to give our very own polar bears some fur. Your fridges will look glorious tonight, babies!
As promised, here are the links!

World’s coolest snow sculptures: 

Do The Funky Penguin by Rufus Thomas :

Penguins ice-skating, clip from a BBC documentary: 

Pingu!

Roaaaar Like a Baby

The little ones in this group are really little, which means you see them grow week by week. Today, the wobblers were a wee more steady, the shy ones came out of themselves a bit more and the talkers got super chatty thanks to Dinosaur Roar. There was a lot of interaction with the book, with what was going on in the pictures, a lot of description and general excitement. You know, dinosaurs!
We then played freely with a bunch of plastic and soft dinosaurs, shared them, swapped them, gave them tea and some even spotted other dinosaurs in other books around the room...
As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos.

The Dinosaurs Song by Big Word Club

The Dinosaur Song by Johnny Cash

Running from a T-Rex by Daddy Donut

Don't Worry, It's Baby Book Club!

What do babies do? They grow! It's been a while since I last saw some of our regular Baby Book Club members and the changes are astonishing! We now crawl, walk, look out, make sentences!
Today we went for a dip in Chris Haughton's huge-enormous-massive waves as we read Don't Worry Little Crab. They enjoyed 'holding tight' before each wave and the colourful fish the pair of crabs meet on the sea floor. They loved when Little Crab introduces themselves to said fish, as they saw it as an opportunity to say 'Hello, fishy!' and started on a round of introductions of our own: 'Hello, fishy, I'm Juliette! Hello, fishy, I'm Flynn...' The excitement to 'find' themselves in the book!
Overall, I think this crowd might have been a little too little for this book. It's longer than Haughton's previous offerings and didn't keep their attention as well as, say, A Bit Lost or Goodnight Everyone.
Our activity today was… to go fishing! I had drawn and cut out sea creatures and plants inspired by the illustrations and stuffed them into a box full of shredded cardboard, a leftover from my Christmas book shopping.
The kids really enjoyed the challenge of touching the strange-to-them texture and rummaging through it. It took some longer than others to go for it, but everyone took part in the end. They were then plied with blue paper and glue sticks and got a chance to create their own seascape. The concentration and seriousness as they worked was fantastic. These guys are aged 10 months to 2 and a half!
As promised, here are the lings to the songs and videos.
Until next time!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive l


The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a great YouTube channels with lots of videos. Try the Bell Jellies:

 the Galloping Bay Pacific Seahorses:

 or the Pelagic Red Crabs:

That’s What Makes the World Go Round (the fish scene from the Sword in the Stone): 

Lost: Poetry - Have You Seen It?

What a morning we've had with Second Class!
Since January is Poetry month and we're all finding it a bit mysterious, we decided to look into it, or rather to look for it.
We kicked off with a really interesting brainstorming session where we wondered about things like What does a poem look like? Can it be about anything? What does it do? Suggested answers, in no particular order, included: rhymes, patterns, feelings, mystical creatures, doom and death, detail, lines, breath and nervousness. These 8 year olds are on the ball.

We then had a look at what wasn't poetry. After all, what's the difference between 'The Friendly Cinnamon Bun' by Russel Hoban and the cookery book version? Or between the nursery rhyme Wiggly Woo and a few lines from the National Geographic website on earthworms?
We were now ready to sort through a big bunch of texts (some found in poetry books, some elsewhere) (some in French!), in groups, and decide what belonged to poetry what didn't.

This wasn't a test, there was no 'wrong' answer, each group could make their own decisions. It was so interesting seeing what was selected (nearly everybody went for short rhyming texts), but it was equally fascinating to see what wasn't. Shape poetry was a flop, for instance. Presentation mattered: anything illustrated with photos was automatically deemed, in some groups, as 'facts'. Some texts were selected on the basis of having illustrations of cute bunnies or nasty dinosaurs.

I then asked each group to vote for their favourite poem and tell us what they had liked in it. 'Good rhyming' was clearly high on the kids' checklist, even when they picked (as one group did) something in French (which they don't speak). Subject matter played a part, while one group liked the image that Margaret Mahy's 'My Sister' painted in their heads ('My sister is remarkably light/ (…) We use her instead of a kite'). We noted that the poem worked even if you didn't have a sister yourself. We talked about poems that were funny and poems that used repetition and made you want to dance and wriggle.

After all that thinking it was time to move around, if not wriggle and dance (but that was ok too) and launch into our poetry treasure hunt! Everyone came back with a series of words that belonged just to them and was invited to combine them in a striking image. Each kid added a stanza (usually illustrated) (sometimes a full-blown epic) to a collective piece that grew and grew, over three long hall tables.
Criminal hairdressers, colour-changing dogs, evil rubber ducks (they seem to be a thing), football-playing skeletons, officers in rubber duck costumes (told you), vampires, peacocks, the moon, and much, much more made an appearance in our crazy poem!
There was a lot in it, for everyone, (enough for 2 sessions, even), but this bunch was game and almost no-one noticed when the bell went for break!
Take a bow, poets!

Kids' Books Quiz 2019!

Randomness alert! These questions were originally designed for the young readers in my life and therefore based on their favourite reads of the year. Some of the books are very current, others date a little, some are huge best-sellers others not so much, but ALL were deeply loved and read many times.
You can take the quiz online at this link or, if technology fails, the questions are listed below.
Check out answers in this other post, and revel in the bibliography of what an 11- and a nearly-8-year-old have enjoyed in 2019.




1. What are the three magical items found by the three heroes of The Cloud Horse Chronicles?
a. A runcible spoon; a worpal sword; a cello
b. A tin of Tearful Tea; a gingerbread warrior; a sentient clock
c. A subtle knife; a reliable hammer; a discreet colander

2. What does the main protagonist of We Won an Island want to build on the island?
a. An ice-cream factory
b. A donkey sanctuary
c. A year-round fun fair

3. Thanks to the blood of which animal can Charlie Ashanti of Lion Boy speak to cats?
a. A tiger mother
b. An ocelot pack leader
c. A leopard cub

4. Where are the adventures of the Warrior Cats set?
a. White Hart Woods
b. Hundred-Acre Wood
c. Farthing Wood


5. Where can you find the Marram Marshes and the House of Foryx?
a. in The Chronicles of Narnia
b. in Harry Potter
c. in Septimus Heap

6. Where do Jill, Terry and Andy live?
a. in the 13-storey tree house
b. in the magical school bus
c. in Lamonic Bibber

7. What extra classes is Raymie Nightingale taking this summer?
a. Baton twirling
b. opera singing
c. ancient greek

8. Why is Boot called Boot?
a. it's the name his previous owner gave him
b. he found a boot in his chest compartment when he woke up in the scrapeyard
c. it's from 'Reboot', the first word he said when he woke up

9. For which space program do the Catstronauts work?
a. MEOW
b. COOKIE
c. CATSUP

10. What are Greg Heffley’s brothers called?
a. Jeff and Kinney
b. Harold and George
c. Rodrick and Manny

11. Who is the Space Girl?
a. Zita
b. Alien
c. Lula




12. What does Friday O’Leary keep shouting in the Mr Gum books?
a. Truth is a lemon meringue!
b. Life is always greener in Lamonic Bibber!
c. What's for dinner Mr Gum?

13. What do you get if you assemble Officer Knight and Greg?
a. the Dynamic Duo
b. Dog Man
c. Cat Boy

14. 'I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet.' Which was the perfect one?
a. a frog
b. a puppy
c. a duck-billed platypus

15. What is Garfield’s favourite dish?
a. lasagna
b. burger and chips
c. he will eat anything

16. Which of the following is a famous dangerologist?
a. Doctor Noel Zone
b. Doctorr Noel Zone
c. Docter Noel Zone

Answers and some great books

1. What are the three magical items found by the three heroes of The Cloud Horse Chronicles?

a. A runcible spoon; a worpal sword; a cello

2. What does the main protagonist of We Won an Island want to build on the island?

b. A donkey sanctuary

3. Thanks to the blood of which animal can Charlie Ashanti of Lion Boy speak to cats?

c. A leopard cub

4. Where are the adventures of the Warrior Cats set?

a. White Hart Woods

5. Where can you find the Marram Marshes and the House of Foryx?

c. in Septimus Heap

6. Where do Jill, Terry and Andy live?

a. in the 13-storey tree house

7. What extra classes is Raymie Nightingale taking this summer?

a. Baton twirling

8. Why is Boot called Boot?

c. it's from 'Reboot', the first word he said when he woke up

9. For which space program do the Catstronauts work?

c. CATSUP

10. What are Greg Heffley’s brothers called?

c. Rodrick and Manny

11. Who is the Space Girl?

a. Zita

12. What does Friday O’Leary keep shouting in the Mr Gum books?

a. Truth is a lemon meringue!

13. What do you get if you assemble Officer Knight and Greg?

b. Dog Man

14. 'I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet.' Which was the perfect one?

b. a puppy

15. What is Garfield’s favourite dish?

a. lasagna

16. Which of the following is a famous dangerologist?

c. Docter Noel Zone (yes, with an E, a bit like Anne of Green Gables)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We had a very lively session today with a selection of Christmas stories, Christmas FM in the background and mince pies! The little ones, most of which will be celebrating their first xmas in a few weeks, were in a showing off mood, practising standing on their own two feet and showing us how Head Shoulders Knees and Toes is done. We loved looking at how Maisie and her friends decorate their tree (it's a bit like how we do it), listening to the sounds of the Noisy Christmas Book and driving Santa's scooter from Whizzy Santa. 

As our members are really quite young at the moment, we try and come up with activities that will appeal to their senses and will amuse their grown-ups. It turns out cutting shapes out of wrapping paper is a hit with both, and that babies LOVE exploring cotton wool. So we had the ideal materials to decorate our own Christmas tree, inspired by Maisie and co. The babies enjoyed manipulating the paper and the cotton, passing them to be glued to the 'tree' and rolling about in the books.

We left everyone full of seasonal spirit… and ready for a good nap!

As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos.

It's the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - The Muppets Christmas Song:

You're a mean one, Mr Grinch (Original 1966 Version) 

Watch the Snowman, based on the book by Raymond Briggs

For an amazing display of lights, check out Trista Lights 2016 Christmas Light Show - Featured on ABC's The Great Christmas Light Fight 

Tune in to ChristmasFM online or on 105.2 FM.

We Like to Move It, Move It, at Baby Book Club

Today we were all about moving around freely within our space at Baby Book Club. We had a ball reading Jump! by Tatsuhide Matsuoka, meeting all the animals and experimenting with jumping just like they do. For the wobblers who felt more like Snail ('A snail jumps./ Mmh. Maybe not.') than like Frog ('A frog jumps./ Boing!'), fear not: it will come to you!
The little ones enjoyed practising sharing the teddy ball and exploring the barrier of bean bags set up around our rug: not very much can stand in the way of a determined baba!
As promised, here are the links to get you and your young person moving!

Toddler Completes Obstacle Course

Throw your own Baby Rave! See how Young at Art does it (above), try this great playlist from Kitty Lynn, or make up your own! 

CosmicKids have loads of videos for kids to do yoga, relaxation and learn about mindfulness. You can choose by length, energy level or category.

I Am Yoga Song - Emily Arrow 

Press this!

We had a bit of a magic session this week in Baby Book Club, thanks to Hervé Tullet's Press Here. His are books that typically look weird and confusing to grown-ups but that little ones just get and can't get enough of. In Press Here kids are invited to press, rub, shake, upend and generally manhandle the book and stuff happens! They stroke a yellow dot on the page and suddenly, on the next one, it turns red! They tap another and, tada, there are now 5 dots where there had only been one! Absolute magic!
They loved manipulating the pages, interacting physically with the pictures and being, it seemed, in charge of the magic.
We clapped, we danced, we squealed with delight. This is not a quiet book.
To add to the general volume levels, we then taped some bubblewrap on the floor and set the babies loose...

If you don't know Hervé Tullet's books, seek them out! If you do, why not read them again and try making your own colourful masterpiece inspired by his dots and squiggles, like we did before?
As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos.

PRESS HERE by Hervé Tullet made out of playdo!  

The Dot Song LIVE - Emily Arrow & Peter H. Reynolds 

Lunch Money "I Want to Push Buttons" 

Buttons In the Wind 

Frances Hardinge Fest 3/3

To celebrate the release of Frances Hardinge's latest novel, Deeplight, here is a bit of a Frances-fest!

Let us skip Frances' next offering, A Skinful of Shadows, which I place quietly beside Cuckoo Song in my mental Hardinge library, and move on directly to her latest, Deeplight, just out this week. 

30 years after the dramatic disappearance of the gods in what has become known to the natives of the Myriad as the Cataclysm, teens Hark and Jelt scrape a living thanks to the very valuable pieces of 'godware' that can still be found under the waves. Life is hard enough, but then something wants to be found and it becomes… complicated. 

Dead gods, smugglers, mad scientists, winged submarines, sea-kissed people, insular slang and sign language, priests, militiaemen…  Deeplight suffers a little from 'too much imagination'. But can you really hold it against this vast, well-developped world? Right from the killer two-page prologue, you want to know what the story is with those gods, who the sea-kissed are, what caused the Cataclysm, how come you can breathe in the mysterious Undersea, how a submarine with wings can possibly work and more… 

The reader's enthusiasm is fuelled by this thirst for knowledge (take me there, tell me more), perhaps even more so than by their attachment to the various characters. Fractured, rough around the edges, they can be hard to like or to understand, and it's mostly with time and continued acquaintance that Hark and Selphin and the others earn their place in the reader's heart. The depiction of the friendship between Hark and Jelt could have done with more showing of the good times rather than telling, and that would have probably placed me more quickly on Hark's side. 

But back to this thirst for knowledge, this desire to know. As you read on, some questions are answered, some not, new ones arise, in a constant flow, as new characters add new stories, new perspectives to an already-known (or seemingly known) state of affairs. The remaining questions (around the gods, around Jelt and Hark's story) become like an itch in the back of the reader's mind, like sand grains between your toes after a trip to the beach.

But by the time you reach the ending, everything you thought you knew has been revisited and uncovered anew by the tide of the narrative, an outgoing tide, ready to carry the characters (and the reader) towards new shores. This overarching ebbing movement of rediscovery is pretty masterful and will probably stay with you for a fairly long time.