April Pulley Sayre's Blog, page 14

Asian Vegetables

Asian grocery stores are great places to veggie adventure. I'm still learning the names and uses of the exotic fresh produce. Below are some of the vegetables I saw on a recent grocery trip.  Feel free to email me if you can i.d. my mystery roots.

unknownroot

unknown root

unknown root

Thai okra

Lotus root

Chive flowers

Gobo or burdock root

banana flower

THE CHANT BOOKS: Read, Taste, Teach!

My chant books are a celebration of  words, rhythm, rhyme, and biodiversity. To celebrate my upcoming (June 16th, 2011) vegetable chant, I've assembled sound samples to help in teaching and understanding these books.

After a quick reading of the book, a 6-year old spontaneously practices on her own as I'm working with another child.  RahRahSpontaneous

Five minutes later, that 6-year old is able to chant a section and has made up some dance moves to go with it.   RahRahRadishesOutLoud

Here I teach the new chant to a large group, line-by-line. Rah Rah Radish youngauthorsconf

I teach word-by-word and challenge a group:  Teaching Insect Chant

Here I perform a high speed version of the Fish Chant End

A young reader leisurely but still rhythmically reads Bird, Bird, Bird_ A Chirping Chant

Another activity is to divide up into teams and have each act out a stanza of the chant. I wish I had video of what creative teachers did performing Ant, Ant, Ant: An Insect Chant during a recent inservice!

Rah, Rah, Radishes: A Vegetable Chant is being released by Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster on June 16th, 2011 but can be pre-ordered at  most stores/sites now.

Rah, Rah, Radishes: A Vegetable Chant Resources

For links to vegetable posts  check this link. More will be added as the release day approaches.

http://www.aprilsayre.com/category/vegetables-2/

Rah, Rah, Radishes: A Vegetable Chant received a starred review in Kirkus! The witty review is really a little masterpiece. It's impressive what they considered and packed into the review text. It was hard to decide which sentence to quote. (Rather loved that it called the book a 'crunch fest for parents and caregivers' !) It did say this: "A winning recipe blending crispy verse and photography. Go team!" For the rest, you'll have to read Kirkus issue May 15, 2011.

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/childrens-books/april-pulley-sayre/rah-rah-radishes/

Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! on List

Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! was named on the Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Books of the Year, 2011!

April Animal Surprise

Here is one of our favorite squirrels.

It is a Gray Squirrel. Small, local populations of gray squirrels have this gorgeous coffee color. This one lives in our neighborhood because a wildlife trapper released it here. As a Gray Squirrel, it is noticeably slimmer than the local Fox Squirrels. And it spends more time up in the trees. It's the only one that can leap to our platform feeder, too.

Library Fish Hour

Look at what the Bighorn Library does with fish for a storytime!

Vegetables That Did Not Make the Cut

Here are some of the main vegetables we could not fit in the rhythm, rhyme, space of Rah, Rah, Radishes: A Vegetable Chant.

1st row: artichoke, avocado, banana squash, and, on the right side of the 4th  photo, bitter melon.

2nd row: celery root, okra, prickly pear leaves, rhubarb.

3rd row: rhubarb, taro root, turban squash, wax beans.

Vegetables Not In Rah, Rah, Radishes

Here are some of the main vegetables not in the chant.

1st row: artichoke, avocado, banana squash, and, on the right side of the 4th  photo, bitter melon.

2nd row: celery root, okra, prickly pear leaves, rhubarb.

3rd row: rhubarb, taro root, turban squash, wax beans.

Continent Studies: Picture Books for K, 1, 2

Great picture books to tie in with studies of continents

Australian Picture Books Everyone Should Read

10 Children's Books About South America

My young continent series books, with two levels of text include:

http://www.aprilsayre.com/2002/08/05/our-amazing-continents-series/

An un-hoppy bunny?

With the launch of If You're Hoppy, I've been keeping my eye on bunny news. Check this out…the world's largest rabbit was 26.4 pounds. It lived 3-5 million years ago and did NOT hop!