Monday 23 September 2013

Things are getting a little "batty" at the St. Monica Library!

It all started when my cousin, who is a veterinary technician and works at the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society (MARS) on Vancouver Island, emailed me photo of a "Townsend's" big-eared bat that someone had brought in.
 


The photos were amazing and I thought the kids here, at St. Monica, might like to see them.  The grade 2 class was scheduled to come into the library that day, so I decided to make it a "Bat" themed library period.


First, I read them one of my very favourite story books about a bat.  It's a fruit bat in this story, but what a lovely tale it is. "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon, has won awards, was covered on the PBS hit series Reading Rainbow, and has been voted into the all-time top 100 storybooks by the Library School Journal.  It's a beautiful book, if you haven't read it, take the time to do so - it's such a lovely story!

To hear it read out loud, check out: StorylineOnline

 
 
When I finished reading the story to the Grade 2 class, I showed them the photos my cousin had sent.  Most of the kids were quite excited to see the photos, and many of them were curious to learn more about bats.
 
The final chapter in this library saga will take place tomorrow.  When the Grade 2 class comes in this week, I will have another type of Bat to show them.  This past weekend at my cabin, it was getting cold enough to light our wood stove to keep us warm at night.  We started to clean out the old ashes to prepare it for our first fire since last spring, and noticed a little black thing in the bottom.  Lo and behold, it was a dead and dried up bat!!!  What shock that was!! Here was a tiny and perfectly preserved bat!
 
I was sad that the bat had somehow gotten trapped in our chimney, couldn't get out and died, but kind of excited (and a bit weirded out by the coincidence of it all) that I could bring in this real bat for the kids to see. 
 
Now, they won't be able to get a really close look and I won't let them touch it (safety and health issues) just to be safe, but they'll be able to get a good look at in a clear, sealed container.  Kind of yucky but cool at the same time!
 
There's always something fun and interesting going on in the  St. Monica school library!

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