Friday, March 12, 2010
It is going to take me quite a while to process all the great teaching techniques I witnessed at Indian Hill Elementary and Indian Hill Primary, two schools in Cincinnati. Just look at what Mrs. Bauer and her class were doing with nonfiction. This is a classroom full of words. You can see their process on the walls. (more…)
These are from Hamilton Traditional School in Indiana.
This amazing teacher worked with her students to put together a Thanksgiving-appropriate story using the structure of Crocodile Listens. See what happens when turkey listens!
They also created a turkey chant using the chant books as a structural element. Mrs Schwartz is clearly an extraordinary teacher.
Turkey Chant Using Breeds of Turkeys!
In Nov, 2008 I had a wonderful visit to Hamilton Traditional School in South Bend, IN. Curriculum leader Marcia LaBelle brought me in. The school was decked with creative art and writing related to my books. Classrooms I visited were doing in-depth writing, using some of my books as structural models. (more…)
| Sayre’s Books As Models For Teaching The 6 + Traits of Writing |
| Ideas | (details, development, focus) | Trout Are Made of Trees
Stars Beneath Your Bed: the Surprising Story of Dust Secrets of Sound: Studying the Calls of Whales, Elephants, and Birds Ocean, Coral Reef, and other in the “Exploring Earth’s Biomes” series |
| Organization | (internal structure) | Vulture View
Trout Are Made of Trees Home At Last: a Song of Migration Secrets of Sound: Studying the Calls of Whales, Elephants, and Birds Ocean, Coral Reef, and other in the “Exploring Earth’s Biomes” series |
| Voice | (tone, style, purpose, audience) | Trout Are Made of Trees
The Bumblebee Queen If You Should Hear a Honey Guide Army Ant Parade Dig, Wait, Listen: a Desert Toad’s Tale |
| Word Choice | (precise language and phrasing) | Vulture View
The Bumblebee Queen Stars Beneath Your Bed Dig, Wait, Listen: a Desert Toad’s Tale Shadows Secrets of Sound: Studying the Calls of Whales, Elephants, and Birds |
| Sentence Fluency | (rhythm, cadence) | Vulture View
Bird, Bird, Bird: a Chirping Chant Home At Last: a Song of Migration Trout, Trout, Trout: a Fish Chant Ant, Ant, Ant: An Insect Chant Shadows |
| Conventions | (mechanical correctness) | any |
| Presentation | (handwriting, formatting, layout) | The Bumblebee QueenTrout, Trout, Trout: a Fish Chant
One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab (Great for pagination.) |
Wow, Knox County, OH schools had fun with my books!. What extraordinary teachers and students. The countryside near there is beautiful, too.
Vulture View, a Theodor Geisel Honor Book, American Library Association. I am so excited about this book! It explores the life of vultures, surely some of the most underappreciated cleaners in the world. It also teaches kids about warm air rising and cooling air sinking. (more…)
Bird, Bird, Bird is follow-up to the wildly popular Trout, Trout, Trout: A Fish Chant celebrates American birds and bird diversity in general through a wild chant of their common names. (more…)
Here are some images from early school visits 2006 and earlier. Many schools did huge projects. Each classroom, for instance, might focus on a biome and educate the rest of the school through dioramas and art. The books in the photos below were done by upper elementary students in Greenville, SC. They took my biome books and adapted them to create simpler “big books” for younger readers in grade 1. They then presented those books to those classrooms. Wow!
Also notice the rain forest cinquain tree, created by writing coaches in Ohio.
April Pulley Sayre is an award-winning children’s book author of over 55 natural history books for children and adults. Her read-aloud nonfiction books, known for their lyricism and scientific precision, have been translated into French, Dutch, Japanese, and Korean. She is best known for pioneering literary ways to immerse young readers in natural events via creative storytelling and unusual perspectives.
© Copyright 1994-2009 April Pulley Sayre. All rights reserved.
All trademarks (registered or otherwise) appearing on AprilSayre.com are the property of their respective owners.
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