Special+weeks+and+or+days.

[] Professional learning - mainly related to teacher-librarianship

[] general events

[] our holidays

[] different events

JULY [|**National Farm Safety Week**]** – 18th July **[] 

National Farm Safety Week aims to raise awareness of farm safety issues in rural communities across. The theme each year for the week is considered to highlight the importance of business and industry working together to achieve the Farm safe mission / vision statement of improving the well-being of Australian farmers through improved attention to OHS. http://www.farmsafe.org.au/ [|**National Stress Down Day**]** – 24th July **[] 

Stressdown on 24/7 is a great day to do something for both yourself and a great cause. Do something relaxing to raise money for Lifeline's 24 hour telephone counselling line. http://www.stressdown.org.au/ [|**Family History Week**]** – 29th July **[] 

National Family History week is an initiative of the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations. During the week events will be conducted across the country that focus on genealogy, family history, heraldry and related subjects including family reunions, seminars, talks, open days, history walks, book launches, film evening and expos. http://www.familyhistoryweek.org.au/  [|**Schools Tree Day**]**<span style="color: #008ba2; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> – 29th July **<span style="color: #1f697f; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 15px;">[]

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12px;">Finally a school activity where kids can get dirty! This is Planet Ark's 'Schools Tree Day', held on the last Friday of July. These budding environmentalists are doing their bit for our country by planting native trees and shrubs and beautifying their school grounds.

JUNE was named after the Juno the Roman goddess of fertility and fruitfulness, as northern hemisphere farmers hoped for a good harvest of ripening crops.

BIRTHSTONE: Pearl

FLOWER: Payne's heath myrtle

1. WA Foundation Day Marilyn Monroe born 1926 2. Italy Wireless patented 1896 Queen Elizabeth crowned 1953 3. Johann Strauss died 1899 5. Denmark World Environment Day Kay Cottee arrives in Sydney 1988 after becoming the first woman to sail around the world solo 6. Sweden D-Day 1944 7. Paul Gauguin born 1848 8. Ice cream on sale 1786 Site of Melbourne chosen 1835 9. First trans-Pacific flight 1928 10. Portugal Maurice Sendak born 1958 Ballpoint pen patented 1945 11 Commonwealth Day James Cook runs aground on reef 1770 Jacques Cousteau born 1910 12. Philippines 13. Slim Dusty born 1927 14. WA gold discovered 1893 15. Magna Carta signed 1215 16. First woman in space 1963 17. Henry Lawson born 1867 18. Battle of Waterloo 1815 Sir Paul McCartney born 1942 19. Equal pay for women 1969 21. Winter solstice Prince William born 1982 25 Korean War began 1950 26 First merino sheep imported 1797 29 Ned Kelly captured 1880

2nd Monday - Queen's Birthday celebrated

May 1. May Day 2. Mother Goose Day WA claimed for Britain 1829 4. Margaret Thatcher first woman PM of UK 1979 5. Japanese Children's Day (Kodomo-no-hi) [] Sir Douglas Mawson born 1882 6. Sigmund Freud born 1856 First car patented in US 1877 Hindenburg exploded 1937 7. Peter Tchaikovsky (Peter and the Wolf) born 1840 German surrender 1945 8. World Red Cross Day Coca Cola manufactured 1886 Federal Labor Party formed 1901 9. Sir James Barrie (Peter Pan) born 1860 Federal Parliament House opened in Canberra, 1927, 1988 Mothers' Day 2010 12. Edward Lear born 1812 Florence Nightingale born 1820 13. First Fleet leaves England 1787 14. Paraguay 15. L. Frank Baum (Wizard of Oz) born 1856 Royal Flying Doctor Service inaugurated 1928 16. First Oscars presented 1929 17. Norway 18. Dame Margot Fonteyn born 1919 19. Dame Nellie Melba born 1816 John Simpson Kirkpatrick (Simpson and his donkey) died 1915 21. Charles Lindbergh flies Atlantic 1927 Amelia Earhart flies Atlantic solo 1932 22. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) born 1859 24. Queen Victoria born 1820 Amy Johnson flies US-Australia solo 1930 25. John Tebbutt born 1834 27. Sir Henry Parkes born 1815 Wesak (birth of Buddha) 2010 [] National Reconciliation Week. 28. Ian Fleming (James Bond) born 1908 Kylie Minogue born 1968 29. John F. Kennedy born 1917 Sir Edmund Hillary climbs Mt Everest 30. Vegemite introduced 1923 31. Blue Mountains crossed 1831 APRIL The name comes from the Latin word 'aperire' which means 'to open' and refers to the opening of the new flowers and leaves of the northern Spring. Birthstone is diamond and flower is daisy.

1. April Fool's Day Franz Josef Haydn born 1732 2. Hans Christian Andersen born 1805 Jack Brabham born 1936 Good Friday (2010) 3. William Farrer born 1845 First Australian census 1881 5. Phar Lap died 1932 6. Harry Houdini born 1874 Modern Olympic Games 1896 7. William Wordsworth born 1770 8. First Australian bank 1817 9. Sir Robert Helpmann born 1909 10. William Booth born 1829 Holocaust Memorial Day 2010 (Israel) 11. First airmail between Australia and New Zealand 1934 12. First manned space flight 1961 First space shuttle 1981 13. Leonardo da Vinci born 1452 14. Abraham Lincoln assassinated 1865 15. Titanic sank 1916 First McDonalds store opened 1955 16. Wilbur Wright born 1867 Charlie Chaplin born 1884 17. Syria 18. Zimbabwe 19. American War of Independence began 1775 Israel Independence Day 20. Adolf Hitler born 1889 Betty Cuthbert born 1938 21. Queen Elizabeth II born 1926 22. Sidney Nolan born 1917 23. St George's Day William Shakespeare born 1564 First public showing of a movie 1896 25. Guglielmo Marconi born 1874 ANZAC landing at Gallipoli 1915 26. William Hovell born 1786 Chernobyl nuclear disaster 1986 27. Samuel Morse born 1791 28. Charles Sturt born 1795 Mutiny on the Bounty 1789 29 Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay 1770 30. Netherlands First public TV broadcast 1939 Vietnam War ended 1975

**__<span style="color: #f33f3f; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.8pt;">October: __** **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">October 26th **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;"> Pink Ribbon Day is an annual awareness day promoted by The Cancer Council Australia and its members to increase awareness of breast cancer and raise funds to combat the disease and support women and their families. Check the website for contact details of your local Cancer Council office. <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[] **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">October 31st **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Internationally World Teachers' Day is celebrated on the first Friday in October. However as this is usually during Australian school holidays, Australia celebrates the day on the last Friday in October of each year. The day provides an opportunity to draw public attention to the important role of teachers within our communities. Celebrated in over 100 countries World Teachers' Day acknowledges the efforts of teachers in an increasingly complex, multicultural and technological society. It is a day on which students, parents and community members can demonstrate their appreciation for the contributions that teachers have made to their community. <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|http://portal.unesco.org/...&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html] National Water Week (NWW) was first held in 1993. __**The third week in October**__ is designated as 'National Water Week' each year. The initiative is designed to assist the community to understand and take action to protect and conserve our precious water resources and habitats. NWW creates a large scale local awareness of community initiatives that generate long-term behaviour change for the protection, rehabilitation and improvement of streams, wetlands, waterways, beaches, and estuaries. In addition, water conservation campaigns are launched, highlighted or reinforced during the week to promote water saving in the community. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.5pt;"><span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">The anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Charter on __**24 October**__ 1945 has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948. It has traditionally been marked throughout the world by meetings, discussions and exhibits on the achievements and goals of the Organization. In 1971, the General Assembly recommended that Member States observe it as a public holiday (resolution 2782(XXVI)). <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">[] <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Children's Week is an annual event celebrated in Australia during **__the fourth week in October__**. Children's Week celebrates the right of children to enjoy childhood. It is also a time for children to demonstrate their talents, skills and abilities. Thousands of children and their families around the country are involved in activities and events during the week, through the participation of schools, playgroups, kindergartens, cultural groups, libraries and community groups. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">[] <span style="color: #333399; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">__**Internationally World Teachers' Day is celebrated on the first Friday in October**__. However as this is usually during Australian school holidays, **__Australia celebrates the day on the last Friday in October__** of each year. The day provides an opportunity to draw public attention to the important role of teachers within our communities. Celebrated in over 100 countries World Teachers' Day acknowledges the efforts of teachers in an increasingly complex, multicultural and technological society. It is a day on which students, parents and community members can demonstrate their appreciation for the contributions that teachers have made to their community. <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">[]
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">October 31st- **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Each year, on the last night of October, millions of children across the U.S dress-up in costume and take to the streets for a spooky dose of Trick or Treat fun. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. See also http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/viewPage?pageId=713

<span style="color: #ee1717; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__**November:**__ 2nd November <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|Melbourne Cup Day] 5th November <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|Guy Fawkes Day (Bonfire Night)] 6th November <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|Australia's Kindness Day] 9th November <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|National Recycling Week] 9th November <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|National Food Safety Week] 11th November <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|Remembrance Day] 14th November <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|World Diabetes Day] 15th November <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">[|National Skin Cancer Action Week]

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.8pt;">**__December:__** <span style="color: #155d95; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Things you could do with your students for Christmas Use a PAINT program to 1. Illustrate a story e.g. Read the story of the nativity at <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">http://www.topmarks.co.uk/christianity/nativity/index.htm <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> (Students <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">illustrate a scene using paint (or <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">www.sumopaint.com <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> for upper primary ). <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">These could be printed and / or combined into a Photostory with student <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">narration. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">2. Upper primary could also use <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">www.sumopaint.com <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> to make Christmas cards.

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">BLOG / WIKI <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Set up a class blog ( <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">www.blogger.com <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> ) or wiki ( <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">www.pbworks.com <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> ) to discuss <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">a Christmas topic of your class's choice. Eg. Family Christmas traditions, <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Christmas around the world.

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">DIGITAL PHOTOS <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Take your own photos, ask students to bring some from home, or find pictures <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">from the website (referencing of course!) and: <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">. Make a Photostory <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">. Choose an activity on <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">www.bighugelabs.com <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> such as 'mosaic maker',' <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">jigsaw', 'magazine cover', 'cube' maker, and my personal fave 'motivator'.

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">PODCAST <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Students write then record (could use audacity) their own podcast. E.g. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Retell a well known Christmas story; or write and record a radio play.

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">WORDLE.NET <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Use <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">www.wordle.net <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;"> to create Christmas word clouds. Could be turned into <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Christmas cards or simply displayed around classroom.

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">SEND A CHRISTMAS POSTCARD <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">Go to <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">http://postcards.primarygames.com/christmas.htm <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">, where students can <span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">select a design, add text and music, and to a recipient.

<span style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">A collection of Christmas teaching resources is available at: <span style="color: blue; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt;">http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/teacher/christmas.html#online