April Pulley Sayre Children's Book Author » Educator Resources

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admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:36:36 +0000

Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out!

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:41:01 +0000

Just out (Feb 2010) is my brand new book based on an old favorite. Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! has new layers in the main text, new endmatter on multiple species, and new illustrations by Annie Patterson. I was able to incorporate turtle behaviors I witnessed recently. Hooray for Charlesbridge for making this book even better than the previous one. This book is featured in NSTA’s Picture Perfect Science Lessons by Ansberry and Morgan, two crackerjack presenters.

It was recently featured as a book of the week at the wonderful CCBC, Cooperature Children’s Book Center. Hurray!

Books for Autistic Students

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:28:50 +0000

ALA librarians called on collective wisdom to assemble a list of books great for use with autistic students, in this case, 7th graders. The list included Ant, Ant, Ant: An Insect Chant (illus by Park) ; Trout, Trout, Trout: a Fish Chant (illus by Park) , and Bird, Bird, Bird: a Chirping Chant (illus by Locke). The list is here: http://connect.ala.org/node/93738

Air Quality and Soil Activity

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:10:43 +0000

Eric Dunsey, School Outreach Coordinator

of the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality

This uses Stars Beneath Your Bed.

http://bringbackblue.com/assets/uploads/files/K-3(1).pdf

United Through Reading

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:09:42 +0000

For 20 years United Through Reading has been bringing families together by having parents and grandparents read books on tape and DVD so their child can see/hear their parent sharing something good. This program helps incarcerated parents, military parents, and grandparents who live far away from their children. What a cool program! I found it because a google alert told me that Vulture View was on their recommended list. Hooray for all that United Through Reading does!

http://www.unitedthroughreading.org/about/greattransitionalbooks_justthefacts.php

Even I Can Make Peshwari Naan

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:16:45 +0000

Making naan requires yeast, a few hours, and a slightly warmed oven for dough rising because the house is freeeeeeeezing cold this time of year. Use the recipe in the book I mentioned in the previous post. To make it Peshwari, just blend raisins, coconut, almonds or pecans, a little butter in a cuisinart. Press or layer this into the dough and presto! You have peshwari naan.

Full o’ Green and Saves You Green

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:13:13 +0000

Be on the lookout for when the Far East brand goes on sale. It often does. Stock up on the Far East couscous. Then buy some parsley. It’s free with vegetable purchase at our local Martin’s supermarket. Two big bunches will make a healthy salad. Swish in a bowl of water to clean off grit. Cut it fine. Fix couscous by the directions. Takes 5 minutes or so. Add parsley, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil. YUM! This is a good way to get your greens, especially in the winter. And kids love it.

Coleen Salley honored in the Princess and Frog movie

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:09:30 +0000

Look through the credits for the Princess and the Frog movie (Disney) and you’ll see a big credit to our beloved Coleen Salley, New Orleans storyteller and great cheerleader for children’s books, including nonfiction read alouds. We miss Coleen! But check out Mama Odie, a character in the movie. You’ll see some of Coleen’s spirit and way of talking, for sure!

February: What Animal Is This?

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:03:24 +0000

Jeff took this photo in our driveway.

I could have featured this creature in November.

Want to know the answer? Click on the photo!

The answer to the question!

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:59:59 +0000

A wild turkey!

Meet the Howlers Is On Its Way!

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:57:51 +0000

February marks the release of my new book, Meet the Howlers! (illustrated by Woody Miller, published by Charlesbridge).This nonfiction, rhyming read aloud looks at the life of a howler monkey from the perspective of a child who is a bit envious about the things wild howlers can get away with that a human child cannot. ”A solid read-aloud for young animal enthusiasts. Ages 4–7″ –Publishers Weekly. Charlesbridge has made a wonderful poster out of the cover art. To download it, visit their site and scroll down to the bottom of the page at www.charlesbridge.com.

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admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:33:12 +0000

7 Months ‘Til Blueberry Hands

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:05:36 +0000

Blueberry Ranch. Organic blueberry farm. Three miles from my house. Need I say more? Our freezer is full. But I can’t wait until July 17th or so when once again I’ll have . . . blueberry hands!

www.blueberryranch.com

Vulture View Flies in Portland, Oregon

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:36:47 +0000

“We LOVE your stories. I am obessed with the story Vulture View, and built a whole lesson around it, teaching kids all sorts of weird stuff about the adaptations of vultures. We even built our own models of carrion and hid them around the forest while the vultures (my co-teacher and I) hunted for them! It was one of the best lessons we’ve taught and really stuck with the kids.”

This quote is from Chrissy Larson, the teacher Balsam of the Nuts about Nature Preschool run by the Portland Environmental Education Department. She wrote to me this week. Below are some photos she took of her activities. (more…)

Granddaughter of a Farmer

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:45:34 +0000

My grandfather was a farmer at a time with ranchers would cut a hole in a farmer’s fence to let cattle graze a new field. My grandfather said he shot a cow or two when it came through the fence. Understand, though, that he was also a great storyteller so there’s no telling whether that gem’s true.

Anyway, it’s January and I am dreaming over my seed catalogs and copies of Organic Gardening Magazine. Just opening the freezer and taking out homegrown chard, peppers, and raspberries makes me intensely happy. In full on gardening season, I am in love with vines and sprouts and soil. Really, non-gardeners think I’m a bit nuts. But you green thumbs, you understand.

Spicing Up the New Year: Indian Cooking Adventure

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:12:09 +0000

Imagine a Christmas present of a whole new cuisine. That is what I received. My sister and her daughter went to an Indian food store, purchased spices, a spice box, bags of various beans and countless jars of sauces, plus bags of pappadams. Probably 30 items or more items. They individually wrapped them in a huge gift box for me. Yippee!

Every day since than I have cooked at least one Indian recipe. Finally, after years of failing at Indian cooking, I am succeeding. Here is why. This cookbook, From Mom With Love…Complete Guide to Indian Cooking and Entertaining, is perfect for someone starting out. It tells you what to buy and the recipes are foolproof. Go to the dal section and cook the Sabut Masoor Dal Amti or the Sambhar Dal and you will think you’ve found a bit of spice heaven. The book is available on Amazon. Warning: a few of its pages are bound out of order, but don’t worry, they are all there.

For some of the non-dal recipes I reduce the heat of the recipes by decreasing the chili powder and ginger by 2/3. That’s still spicy for me.

It all started when my sister bid and won a school auction for an Indian cooking lesson. (This is a great way to raise funds for a school. Adapt to any cuisine you have.) I was there for the lesson. The woman who gave us the lesson gave my sister this wonderful cookbook, apparently written by her aunt. Later, my sister sent me a copy of the book and all the items. But really, the lesson, though enjoyable, wasn’t necessary. It’s all there in the book.

I loved putting the spices into the spice box. It is handy and beautiful. Just pull it out and scoop the necessary items into the pan.

The back of the book has recipes for some spice mixes. You can buy them, of course. But I chose to make my own sambhar powder, using store bought spices and red chiles from my summer garden.

Every recipe has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, comparable to the best Indian food I have had in big cities. I even made peshwari naan by adding nuts and coconut to the recipe in the book.

James Cameron’s Movie Avatar Plants, Animals, and Fungi

admin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:28:34 +0000

Are your students buzzing about the movie Avatar? Here’s how you might tie-in an extra credit biology research project for motivated students. Ask them to research and report back on some of these real-life wonders which I noticed were echoed in the movie’s animation:

Christmas Tree Worms. One of the early scenes in the fantasy part of the movie shows the characters walking through the forest and touching some large feather duster type organisms that, when touched, disappear into the (more…)

Two Best Additions To the Kitchen 2009

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:23:36 +0000

Our family has asthma issues and a not-so-great exhaust fan over the stove. The best solution would be a downdraft stove, better venting, and a better hood. But until we set aside the gobs of money to fix the situation, we have found a few amendments. One is grapeseed oil. Up until now, we had used olive oil as our base for browning onions. Healthy, right? Not if you smoke up the house and inhale the stuff!

Grapeseed oil has similar health benefits and a higher smoke point so we can brown onions in it, grease the griddle for pancakes, and do all the normal oil activities without making us all wheeze! Carapelli is one of the excellent brands. A bottle lasts us for months because we do not do a lot of deep frying, and so on.

Another great addition was the Le Creuset 5 quart pot. Ah, I could wax with joy over this. I had wanted it for years. For our 20th anniversary, we bought ourselves this soup pot. Yes, we are that romantic. In the 2 months we have had this, I have cooked some of the best soups and stocks of my life. A really good pot/pan can make the difference between browning and burning. These pots are heavy and last forever and they evenly heat food. Great!

Brown creeper photo larger

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:14:53 +0000

January Animal: the Bark Bird

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:07:33 +0000

Yes, I know it’s hard to see. Click here to see it larger. This is one of my all time favorite birds, the brown creeper. Talk about camouflage! It looks like bark. It walks on bark. Sometimes it nests on bark that has slightly pulled away from the tree. I photographed this one December 2009, here in Indiana.