Pi Day

Today, March 14th, is Pi Day. No, that's not a typo. It is Pi day, as in 3.14159... you get the idea. The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988.

What is pi anyway? I'm sure you remember it from math in some formula you memorized, but do you really know what it is? Pi represents the relationship between a circle’s diameter (its width) and its circumference (the distance around the circle). Pi is always the same number, no matter the circle you use to compute it. In school we generally approximate pi to 3.14 in school, but professionals often use more decimal places and extend the number to 3.14159.

One activity I loved doing with students was to ask them to bring in a can and lid that would soon be recycled. I always brought in a few extras so that there would be a variety of sizes. Each student was given a lid and directed to measure the diameter and circumference. Students then divided the circumference by the diameter. We recorded the results on the overhead and discussed them. Most were amazed to find that the results were nearly the same, allowing for some margin of error in measurement. This is a quick and fun and provides a meaningful way to introduce the concept of pi.

Are you doing anything special for Pi Day? I hope you'll be celebrating in some small way. Perhaps you could make a pi necklace. Since any day is a good day for poetry, you could try reading some pi poems. If you're looking for more ideas, visit the Exploratorium pi site or try this middle school math newsletter.

Celebrating Robert Frost

Robert Frost was born on this day in 1874. Of poetry Frost wrote, "A poem...begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion finds the thought and the thought finds the words."

In celebration of his day, here is a poem befitting the season.

A Prayer in Spring
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

Celebrating Randolph Caldecott with a New Book Meme

Randolph Caldecott was born on this day in 1846 in Chester, England. He is best known for his illustrations for children's books. You can read more about him at the Randolph Caldecott Society site.

The Caldecott Medal was named in his honor. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. First awarded in 1938, the list of winners and honorees is an amazing testament to the talent and skill that is directed towards the production of children's books.

In honor of Ralph Caldecott's birthday, I propose this new meme. Review the list of Caldecott winners from 1938 to the present and list your five favorite titles (based on illustrations, not the text), whether Medal winners or honorees. Then, name one book that didn't make this list that you feel was deserving of the nod.

Here are my answers.
Favorite Titles

• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (1940 honor book)
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1963 Medal winner)
• Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (1994 Medal winner)
• The Gardener illustrated by David Small, text by Sarah Stewart (1998 honor book)
• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type illustrated by Betsy Lewin, written by Doreen Cronin (2001 honor book)

Book That Missed the List
A book William and I have great fun reading that did not make the list is The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard by Gregory Rogers. I love the ink and watercolor illustrations and the glimpse of another time provided in this wordless picture book. I also love Actual Size by Steve Jenkins (I get chills every time I place my hand over the gorilla's) and Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Finally, I am completely enamored of the illustrations in Russell Freedman's The Adventures of Marco Polo. Okay, that's four. So sue me, I couldn't stop at just one.

Now, it's your turn! Leave your lists in the comments or better yet, leave me a note and complete this meme on your blog. If you read this, consider yourself tagged.

P.S. - While you're thinking about this, consider whether or not the next round of Cybils should include a category for illustrations. I certainly would love to see it.

P.P.S - And while you are here, take a gander at my idea for the Caldecott 2008 announcement. Ain't it grand?!

Happy Birthday to Mitsumasa Anno

Mitsumasa Anno was born on this day in 1926. After attending a teacher training college in Japan, he worked as a mathematics teacher before turning to art as a full time endeavor. His works show that he never left this love of math behind, as the mathematical world appears in many of his books. He tackles concepts as simple as counting, to the more difficult idea of factorials, all with an eye towards helping readers understand them. Some of my favorite math books include:

• Anno's Counting Book
• Anno's Counting House
  
• Anno's Magic Seeds
• Anno's Hat Tricks
  
• Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar
  

In addition to these books, I often use Anno's Journey and Anno's USA while introducing students to geography and map making. I also love All in a Day, a book illustrated by 10 artists, including Mitsumasa Anno, Raymond Briggs, Eric Carle and others, that illustrates the similarities and differences in children and their activities in eight different parts of the world throughout one 24-hour day.

Mitsumasa Anno was honored for his work with the 1984 Hans Christian Anderson Award. The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art hosted the first major exhibition of Anno's work in America in 2003. You can learn more about the artist in the interview he gave in the winter 2004 edition of Japanese Children's Books. You can see his work in Shimane, Japan at the Anno Museum of Art.

Celebrate the birthday of this wonderful artist by reading one of his books. They are marvelous celebrations of the world (both natural and mathematical) around us. Happy birthday, Anno!

Birthday Wishes for Leo and Diane Dillon

Leo and Diane Dillon are known for their outstanding body of work in illustrating children's literature. Born 11 days apart in 1933, Leo on March 2 and Diane on March 13, they met at the Parsons School of Design in New York City and married in 1957. They are the only recipients of back-to-back Caldecott medals, for the works Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions (1977) and Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears (1976). In 1997 they celebrated their 40th anniversary and completed their 40th book together, To Every Thing There Is a Season, a beautifully illustrated version of passages from the Book of Ecclesiastes. I wonder what the 50th anniversary will bring this year?

Here is an excerpt about them from Embracing the Child.

There are two major messages the Dillons want to convey. The first is that all people, whatever their culture or race, experience the same things. "We all have a lot in common. It is our beliefs that divide us. We have little control over what life brings us but we can change our thoughts." The second is that since the beginning of history, people have expressed themselves in wonderful and unique ways. "Art in its many forms has survived to inform us of lives long gone. Art inspires, lifts our spirits, and brings beauty to our lives. We wish to pay homage to it and the people that created it."

Nowhere are these ideas more apparent than in To Everything There is a Season. Each passage in the book is accompanied by artwork from one of 16 different cultures, Celtic, Egyptian, Japanese, Mayan, Green, Indian, Medieval European, Ethiopian, Thai, Chinese, Russian, Aboriginal, Inuit, and Arab. This is a book that truly captures the similarities and differences that all people share.

So, happy birthday, Diane, and happy belated birthday, Leo. May you have many more years and beautiful books together.

Celebrating Virginia Hamilton

Virginia Hamilton was born on this day in 1936. One of five children, she traced her interest in literature to the fact that her parents were "storytellers and unusually fine storytellers, and realized, although I don't know how consciously, that they were passing along heritage and culture and a pride in their history." She was so moved by this tradition that oral storytelling methods appear in her writing. For her work, she was honored with the National Book Award, the John Newbery Medal, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Medal.

Even though M.C. Higgins, The Great won the Newbery and all sorts of other awards, my favorite book is still The People Could Fly. This terrific collection of American Black Folktales was honored as the Coretta Scott King Award winner, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book (with fantastic illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon), a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Horn Book Fanfare selection and a Notable Social Studies Trade Book (just to mention a few).

Ms. Hamilton died five years ago, but her family has kept her web site going. Stop in and take a look, then pick up one of her books and remember her this day.

Happy Birthday to Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye was born on this day in 1952. The daughter of a Palestinian father and American mother, she grew up in Missouri, Jerusalem, and Texas. Both a poet and author (and plenty of other things, I'm sure!), she has won many awards, among them the Jane Addams Children's Book award for Sitti's Secrets and Habibi. If you don't know this award, it is given to works that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence.

Among my favorite books of Nye's poetry are 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East and Come With Me: Poems for a Journey. She was also responsible for collecting the works in the terrific volume The Space Between Our Footsteps.

Here is the title poem from Come With Me: Poems for a Journey (Greenwillow, 2000).

Come With Me
To the quiet minute between two noisy minutes
It's always waiting ready to welcome us
Tucked under the wing of the day
I'll be there
Where will you be?

Why don't you take the journey with this wonderful author and poet? Open up a book or volume of poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye and find your way to a world where many of us have never been.

Happy Birthday, Ms. Nye!

Beyond the Wild Wood

Kenneth Grahame was born on this day in 1859. He was raised by his grandmother in the village of Cookham Dene, which served as the chief setting of The Wind in the Willows. The author created the character of Toad to amuse his son, but it was not until 1908 that the book was published. It was originally published without illustrations, but in 1931 was released with lovely illustrations by E. H. Shepard.

"Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wild World," said the Rat. "And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at all..."

The remarkable story of Rat, Mole, Badger and Mr. Toad and their adventures in the English countryside is a classic of children's literature. It is a fabulous book to read aloud. If you haven't read this one, you simply must.

Happy Birthday to Mem Fox!

Mem Fox was born on this day in 1946. She is the author of such books as Possum Magic, Koala Lou, Hunwick's Egg and many more terrific titles. William and I are most fond of Hattie and the Fox and The Magic Hat. We know these by heart and often recite the words before we turn the pages.

Since the publication of her book, Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever, she has been on an all-out campaign for reading aloud to kids. Visit her web site for more information. Be sure to take a look at her Ten read-aloud commandments.

Happy birthday, Ms. Fox!