What is world World Ocean Day?

World Oceans day celebrates the ocean and how it connects all of us.

You can participate in a World Oceans Day by holding an event or activity this year and help protect the ocean for the future.

World Ocean Day 2023 theme: 
"Planet Ocean: Tides are Changing."

When is World Ocean Day?

Thursday, 8 June

World Oceans Day allows us to:

• Change perspective – encourage individuals to think about what the ocean means to them and what it has to offer all of us with hopes of conserving it for present and the future generations.
• Learn – discover the wealth of diverse and beautiful ocean creatures and habitats, how our daily actions affect them, and how we are all interconnected.
• Change our ways – we are all linked to, and through, the ocean! By taking care of your backyard and helping in your community, you are acting as a caretaker of our ocean. Making small modifications to your everyday habits will make a difference, and involving your family, friends, and community will benefit our blue planet even more!
• Celebrate – whether you live inland or on the coast, we are all connected to the ocean. Take the time to think about how the ocean affects you, and how you affect the ocean, and then organize or participate in activities that celebrate our ocean.
• Visit the World Oceans Day website and view the ebook The Ocean Project. You can read this in your centre and find an entire library on environmental books about the ocean! Or sign your centre up to host an event and raise awareness about the ocean!
• Maybe you would like to look at water as an experiment? What objects do you have around your centre that would sink or float? Maybe you can talk to the children about the importance of disposing of rubbish eg. Plastic appropriately to prevent it from floating and causing havoc in the ocean?

For further information click on the following links:

• World Ocean Day Website: https://www.worldoceansday.org/
• Global Ocean and Aquatic Library: https://www.worldoceansday.org/book
• Submit your event: https://www.worldoceansday.org/events/community/add

 "On World Environment Day, the message is simple: reject single-use plastic. Refuse what you can’t re-use. Together, we can chart a path to a cleaner, greener world." — United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres

What is World Environment Day? 

World Environment Day is aimed to be the biggest, most widely celebrated, global day for positive, environmental action, promoting awareness. It is celebrated on the 5th of June every year. There are many possible activities to coordinate with this day.

When is World Environment Day? 

Monday, 5 June

World Environment Day can be celebrated in many ways, activities such as clean up campaigns are popular and will be prominent this year, also concerts, conventions and parades, tree planting, and lectures. Promotional materials for the day tend to be created using natural environmental colours.

Activity ideas for Early Childhood:

• Implementing a Worm Farm (compost) into your service to encourage and teach recycling your food waste into ideal natural fertilisers to improve the health of your garden i.e. vegetable garden.
  - Click here to find out further information regarding worm farms.
  - Click here to find out where to purchase worm farms and worms.
• Learning and putting into practice saving energy; turning off lights when room not in use
• Learning about recycling - this can be turned into a project, getting families to bring in recycling materials etc

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 19th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

By facilitating NSS we aim to:

• promote the value of reading and literacy,
• promote the value and fun of books,
• promote an Australian writer and publisher,
• promote storytime activities in public libraries and communities around the country,
• and provide opportunities to involve parents, grandparents, the media and others to participate in and enjoy the occasion.

NSS receives positive media coverage, generates a great deal of community interest and is held annually as part of Library and Information Week. 2018 was our biggest and most successful NSS to date with over 1,062,230 participants at over 8,255 locations.

What do we look for in the National Simultaneous Storytime book?

Each year, interested publishers send in possible titles. From a practical perspective, the publisher has to be able and willing to provide copyright release for use of the illustrations, book projection, translation into other languages and performance. The publisher also needs to commit to a special print run of several thousand copies. This narrows down the options. The criteria for choosing from the remaining books include: a positive storyline; appeal to a modern and diverse audience; suitability for read-aloud (language and length); how well the book lends itself to craft and other activities.

Visit Scholastic Australia's website to purchase your copy of the book.

To obtain further information, please visit: https://www.alia.org.au/nss

What is Walk Safely to School Day?  

Now in its 20th year, National Walk Safely to School Day (WSTSD) is an annual event when all children will be encouraged to walk and commute safely to school. It is a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public Transport and the Environment.

When is Walk Safely to School Day? 

Friday, 19 May

Teaching road safety and lesson ideas

1. Create a giant road map

Educator: Make a giant map of roads, paths and pavements out of coloured paper stuck together. You can also include features that you have in your local area, like crossings or a park.

Children: Engage in cutting out pictures of vehicles, people, dogs and buggies out of old magazines. Stick the pictures in the right place on your giant road. Vehicles on the road, people on the pavement and in the park!

Educator: Practice with the children key road safety words related to what’s in the picture. Can you see a …..? How many ……? What colour is the…..? Then stick your giant road on the wall as part of a road safety display. Make sure your display is somewhere parents will see it.

2. Looking and listening skills

What can you hear? What can you see? What can you sing?

Educator: Record some road sounds, or find them online: car, fire engine, motorbike, bicycle bell, a pedestrian crossing beeping. Play these sounds to children getting them to match them with appropriate pictures, and saying what makes what noise, for example, ‘The blue car goes brum brum brum, The big red fire engine goes nee nah nee nah….' etc.

Children: Sit in a circle and guess the noises when you play them, matching them to the pictures you show them.

3. Giant handprint display

Create a giant poster of children’s hand prints and write ‘We hold hands’ at the top, and display it where parents as well as children can see it. TEACH TO ALWAYS HOLD HANDS!!!

WSTSD promotes the important message that active kids are healthy kids. The event encourages parents, carers and their children to build regular walking to and from school into their daily routine. Children need a minimum of 60 minutes exercise per day. Encouraging less driving and more walking aims to decrease dangerous vehicle congestion around schools and reduce carbon emissions from idling cars. Lastly, it is just a nice way to be part of your community. Visit www.walk.com.au/WSTSD to accesses a huge range of resources for your school.

What is International Day of Families?

International Day of Families is to promote the importance of maintaining a happy and healthy family relationship.

There is many activities that families can participate to build upon the strong family bonds. To celebrate this day within your centre, you can discuss with the children what (in the case of younger non-verbal children, record) their favourite games, stories and activities are and provide these to the parents?

When is International Day of Families?

Monday, 15 May

Activities:

• Celebrate the families in your centre by hosting a morning or afternoon tea for them. 
• Run an activity with the children about their favourite activities to do as a family
• Asking parents for their input and maybe get some photos of the children with their families i.e. do they like to ride a bike, hike, visit a library, have story time?
• Create a family tree by adding images of the children and families
• Run a centre wide project of the children’s family history/ extended family. What are there origins? What do they do as a family to celebrate their heritage?
• Intentional teaching - discussing different types of families in our society.