Recess at 20 Below, Revised Edition

by Cindy Lou Aillaud

Overview

A kid favorite of life in the far north, Recess at 20 Below is now repackaged in a new design with bonus content from the author!

Experience from a kid's perspective what it is like playing during recess when it is really cold: how the world sounds outside, how it tastes outside, how it looks, and even how it smells when the thermometer says it's 20 below. Learn about the layer after layer of clothing you have to put on to avoid frostbite before you could hit the playground, the tiny ice crystals you could just see in the air, the loud crunch, crunch, crunch sound your boots make when you walked.

Photographs of real kids with words by award-winning teacher Cindy Lou Aillaud have made this book popular all over North America because all the kids want to know what happens at 20 below zero. This revised edition also includes the author's answers to real questions she has received from kids everywhere about what life and school are like in Alaska.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781513261935
Publisher:	West Margin Press
Publication date:	01/29/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	34
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 10 Years

About the Author

Cindy Lou Aillaud was a classroom, special education, and/or physical education teacher for 23 years. A few of her many honors include a Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholarship for study in Japan and the Alaska Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the year award. She is retired from the Delta/Greely School District in Alaska. Ms. Aillaud continues to live in Delta Junction, Alaska, and stays busy visiting schools all across the globe encouraging kids to write their own stories. She is the author of Recess at 20 Below.

Interviews

There is a certain magic that happens in winter when the temperatures drop to colder than 20 below. When the thermometer shows 50 degrees BELOW zero, it’s really time for the fun to begin. Did you know that a banana can freeze hard enough to drive a nail into wood? That you can throw a cup of boiling water into the air and it vaporizes into a cloud of crystals while making a whoosh sound? That you can blow a soap bubble with a wand and the bubble will freeze like glass?

During our coldest winter months, kids must be concerned about safety. They have to dress warm enough so as not to get frostbite. They also must be careful of wild animals all year long. Moose can be dangerous if they feel threatened and, of course, bears are a hazard—especially if you get between a mom and her cubs! In the summer, we have to be careful to get enough sleep. Since it is light all night, it’s easy to stay up too late!

Editorial Reviews

"Aillaud, who wrote the text and took the photos here, teaches elementary physical education in Delta Junction, Alaska, a town at the end of the Alaska Highway, above the Arctic Circle. By focusing on one school activity—outdoor recess (the cut-off point for the school's outdoor recess is 20 below), she demonstrates how cold things get and how kids deal with it and still have plenty of fun. The first-person narrative, from a student's perspective, explains the arduous process of suiting up for the outdoors, then follows the kids as they sled, adapt to playground equipment buried under snow, make snow forts and tunnels, and even play soccer and football. Twenty-five color photographs capture marvelous details: snow mounds, a moose on the playground, kids whose eyelashes are weighed down by ice. Aillaud, who won a Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholarship in 2000 and was selected as a Disney Teacher of the Year, gives a familiar school-day activity a whole new meaning in delightful, intriguing fashion."

Booklist

"Just how cold is too cold for recess in Alaska? Answer: if it’s colder than 20 below zero. And how cold is 20 below? Well, cold enough for your nose to dry out, your tongue to instantly freeze on metal, and your breath to collect on your eyelashes and hair and freeze into a mysterious, delicate ice shield. Each page of this homage to outside play under extraordinary conditions is sure to elicit a gasp of surprise and delight from children who rarely experience the snow and cold as the children in Delta Junction, Alaska, do. Humorous photos tell the story here: students walking in the dark to school, every inch of their bodies covered with mittens, boots, parkas, balaclavas, and snow pants; children sledding down the mountain of snow on the playground that grows each time the parking lot snow is cleared. Aillaud’s straightforward text misses no interesting detail, from the presence of a dangerous moose (no one’s allowed out that day), to the scant three hours between sunrise and sunset, to the snow tunnels that warm the frozen revelers. Bundle up . . . but don’t forget to go to the bathroom before you put on all those layers!"

Horn Book

"Aillaud, who wrote the text and took the photos here, teaches elementary physical education in Delta Junction, Alaska, a town at the end of the Alaska Highway, above the Arctic Circle. By focusing on one school activity—outdoor recess (the cut-off point for the school's outdoor recess is 20 below), she demonstrates how cold things get and how kids deal with it and still have plenty of fun. The first-person narrative, from a student's perspective, explains the arduous process of suiting up for the outdoors, then follows the kids as they sled, adapt to playground equipment buried under snow, make snow forts and tunnels, and even play soccer and football. Twenty-five color photographs capture marvelous details: snow mounds, a moose on the playground, kids whose eyelashes are weighed down by ice. Aillaud, who won a Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholarship in 2000 and was selected as a Disney Teacher of the Year, gives a familiar school-day activity a whole new meaning in delightful, intriguing fashion."

Booklist