Lucinda's Library Notes

THE WATER AND THE MOUNTAINS WERE INCREDIBLE!  WORTH THE WEEK OFF!  MORE BLOGS COMING SOON!  

 SORRY FRIENDS, YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR W!  IT WILL BE ONE WEEK DELAYED!

  Olivia is a popular series of books for early readers by Alex Harvey.  The irony of this book, Olivia becomes a Vet, is that the animal characters are taking care of animals.  Olivia first considers the needs of the animals and what types of food they like to eat. When her friend's pet refuses to eat, Olivia suggests they take him to the vet where she dreams about all the animals she would like to own.  A real life event at the vet clinic inspires her to become a vet and to practice through imaginative play with her pets who have pretend diseases. Olivia will inspire the child(ren) in your life to get their vet bag and instruments, give toy pets a check up, diagnose pretend illnesses like strawberry jam disease and name types of pets and exotic animals like a lion, elephant and camel. I want to be a Veterinarian by Laura Driscoll is an "I can read level 1" book that  goes through all the steps of the visit of his dog to the vet.  He is introduced to dif...

Interesting. Vegetables!  Okay....What shall I say?  Hmmm....Well, vegetables are a big part of a healthy meal and meals are a big part of life and of play. Option one: Practice colours . Whether real or toy veggies, separate them into different baskets according to their colour.  If you only have one vegetable at a time, name the colour.  Another idea is to describe a vegetable with clues and have them guess which vegetable you are thinking of. Make the first clue the colour of it. Option two: Make a grocery list and have the children learn the prices and quantities of food and select them from the aisles.  You can begin with cutting and pasting vegetables from flyers onto a sheet or by circling items on the flyer you want and working on understanding money concepts too to determine how much you can buy with the money you have.  Learn to prioritize the shopping list according to greatest need in case the money runs out.  Be sure to have healthy veget...

 As a CDA (lol, and as a person) I like to support children who need extra help with processing.  Maybe they need more sensory experiences or reduced auditory stimulation or added visual supports. Today's topic is about using visuals. From infancy on through to adulthood visual input is a means of using sensory input to help process information and use it. Some children are visual learners and build their skills optimally when the learning process is supported by visual cues.  From early on supporting learning with visuals is meaningful.  Showing them a picture of a dog and labelling it is more useful than describing what a dog is.  Showing the bottle of milk is more impactful than asking if they are thirsty.  Picking up their shoes and pointing to the door is a clear symbol to demonstrate what the next plan is even without opening your mouth to tell them.   Here are some ways to use visuals to build skills and support the development of the child...

by Sybil Wettasinghe  This book is an authentic Sri Lankan tale that describes a man's exciting experience of being the first to introduce umbrellas to his small village.  When I first began this blog, this is one of the first books I wanted to share with you so I am excited that we are 21 weeks in and got to the letter U! Below are eight elements of a story that can be used to help you describe a book and how they are fulfilled in Umbrella Thief Setting :  The Where and When of the story: The setting is in Sri Lanka, in a small village and in the capital city.  It is understood that this story happened many years ago. Characters :  The Who(s) of the story:  The main character is the Uncle (Mama) named Kiri-mama who often talks to the tea shop owner. However, we are also trying to figure out who is the umbrella thief. Plot : The What of the story (what happened): Kiri-mama wants to introduce the concept of an umbrella to his village but a thief kept coming...

U is for Umbrellas, Unicorns, Ukuleles, Uniforms and so much more!   Today I chose to focus on Uniforms.  Who wears them?  Some schools have uniforms and there is an active debate about the pros and cons of that.  Some workplaces have "loose uniforms" which may be you can wear any style but only if the items are black or white or any colour but only pants and polo shirts.  However, for today I am focusing on the uniforms associated with our community helpers: Police, Firefighters, Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, Bakers, Construction workers, Farmers, Postal workers, and so on. 1. Dress up and pretend to be people in various professions.  Be construction workers or librarians or pilots for a day.  Get out the appropriate tools of the trade as part of the dramatic play experience. 2. Create a prop for a profession as part of art time.  Create a first aid kit with band-aids.  Get out a foam cupcake and glue on sprinkles on top.  Make a card...

U is for understanding (verb form).  How do we build skills in this area?  A synonym for understanding is comprehension.  Does the child comprehend the text and the question? This is key to success when taking a test or completing an assignment Today my dad is in hospital and I had to answer scenario questions online.  I did not fully understand what they were asking me to do but I had a time limit so I forged ahead, only to comprehend it better as I moved through it.  I realized I was not answering the question correctly and had to adjust my answer.  However, because my time was limited, I unfortunately do not think I ended up properly reconstructing my response.  This wasn't a lack of knowledge or skill but to an outsider, it would appear to be that that was the case.  I had a busy day and had just heard bad news and my brain could not process as effectively as usual.  Understanding a child's day, their health status, their level of alertne...

Over 75 years ago (in 1945) Wilbert Audry began creating a series of books called The Railway Series with several characters, Engine 1 (Thomas) being the main character.  The stories of Thomas the Tank Engine were created to accompany a wooden train he had given to his son, Christopher, that were later published.  Thomas as we know him today was a later design created by Reginald Payne who was hired to illustrate the book.  He based each of the trains on prototypes in existence at the time.  The beauty of the series and it's longevity is due to the fact it is based on a timeless series of stories shared between a father and his son.  Awdry had found a way to spend quality time interacting with his son with the added bonus of expanding Christopher's interest in the toy and the imaginary world of trains who could talk.  The anthropomorphized trains interacted with one another.  Each had different personalities and specializations to add diversity reflect...

Alphabet :  A is for Airplane, A is for Auto, B is for Bus, B is for Boat, C is for Car,  C is for Canoe, etc.  Can you find a form of transportation for every letter A to Z? Books :  Up, That's Not My Car, Blue Boat, Pete the Cat: Wheels on the Bus, Disney CARS series, Cars, Trucks and Things that Go!, Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks from A to Z, Thomas the Train, If I Built a Car, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, Sheep in a Jeep, Freight Train and more! Crafts :  Roll toy cars in paint and make tracks on paper, Popsicle stick boats, Glue people and wheels onto a bus, decorate cardboard boxes as racecars or trucks, decorate pylons, chalk roads on black paper or the sidewalk, make a checkered flag (black marker on white cloth or weave b&w paper) Dramatic Play :  Airport/Pilot Play,  Emergency Personnel (Fireman, Policeman, Paramedic), Community Helpers (Bus/Taxi Driver, Sanitation Truck Driver, Car Mechanic), Farm Life with Tractors Experim...

🔥 Hot Topic Today !  Themes !   These are often criticized as an outdated practice that should be shunned and yet I choose to do a blog each week with 'themed activities' and see it as a positive and inspirational post.  However, it is the context of themes that needs to be clarified and is what I am thinking through with this post. A theme is considered to be an adult directed topic set up for a week or a month and a child is directed to learn about that subject for the duration even though they may not have any interest in the topic.  I do not agree with this format and according to this definition I also disapprove of themes.  However, if you have a child who is passionate about something, using their interest to expand their knowledge of the subject and how it is applied in different fields would only serve to further engage them in learning and expand their play with new ideas.   For example, a desire to be a chef can expand to understandin...