Rah, rah, raspberries! Go, go, grapes! Prepare yourselves. Go, Go, Grapes: a Fruit Chant will be released May 22, 2012.  I’m proud of the luscious photos, which were taken primarily at our local farmer’s market, small grocery stores in our town, and a few markets I visited on travels. Several fruit parties had to be held to munch all the fruit I purchased from friendly fruit folk!

I’ll be doing two guest blogs for poetry month. Here’s the first, on Jama Rattigan’s Poetry Potluck. She’s featuring lots of poets, their poems, and recipes, all month long.

http://jamarattigan.com/2012/04/02/going-natural-with-april-pulley-sayre/

Am I a poet? Hmm…just considering that this month, after two folks asked me to blog about poetry. I blogged about this quandry on Katie Davis’ site.   I also discussed some of the math behind my chant/poetry work on INK. 

 Here, some rockin’ awesome Mississippi librarians show me how they sing If You’re Hoppy, incorporating the slight variations from the traditional If You’re Happy song. (I admit I never imagined folks singing it, only saying it out loud. But I’ve heard lots of librarians are singing it for story hour.)  The facebook author page with the video.

Act It Out!

Divide students (or teachers) into pairs or small groups. Have each group write out and learn a stanza (four lines). They can decide how to perform it. Here are some aspects of the chant that performers have tried in the past:

saying the entire chant in unison

saying only part in unison

alternating speakers for each word

popping up then sitting down for each speaking turn

adding claps, snaps, and arm shapes

making poster art for each vegetable

bringing real vegetables to show when each is mentioned

Audio samples to help in teaching and reading Rah, Rah, Radishes: a Vegetable Chant and April Pulley Sayre’s other chant books (Trout, Trout, Trout: A Fish Chant; Ant, Ant, Ant: An Insect Chant; and Bird, bird, Bird: a Chirping Chant) are available on the front page of www.aprilsayre.com or athttp://www.aprilsayre.com/2011/04/07/the-chant-books-read-taste-teach/

Oh boy, bok choy! Rah, Rah, Radishes: a Vegetable Chant is out in stores. (Go, Go, Grapes: a Fruit Chant will follow in May 2012.) My thanks to all of you who encouraged me to keep pursuing a home for the veggie book.  I hope it encourages kids to taste delicious vegetable words and the vegetables, too.

This book was inspired by our observations of howler monkeys in Panama.  To hear howler monkeys I recorded in Panama, click on the calls below. You can also hear toucans grinding their bills, parrots flying, hummingbirds clicking. Howler call edited Howler call begins edited Howler

See how the teachers at Sandhills Elementary honor writing and analyze books. (more…)

These are from Hamilton Traditional School in Indiana.

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…)