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…)
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.
These are actually breeds of turkeys, apparently.
The students map out sounds a turkey might hear
They set the story when the pilgrims arrived!
They imagine what the turkey heard!
Onomatopoeia comes into play.
Creating the stories touches many kinds of descriptive writing.
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…)
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.