April Pulley Sayre's Blog, page 17

Education Student University Presentation

An education student recently wrote to me about what she presented in class as part of an author/book study. With her permission, I'm reprinting it here.

I just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know how my presentation went last night. Everything went well and my class was very excited to hear about you.  I must admit, it was so easy to talk about you and your books.  I chose to do my activities on Hush Little Puppy, Stars Beneath Your Bed, and Splish, Splash, Animal Baths.  I did a phonics activity with Hush Little Puppy and focused on rhyming.  I made rhyming charts and students would have to match pictures on one side of the chart with its rhyme on the other side.  I attached yarn to one side and had velcro on the other side for the yarn to be attached.  I did a word study activity for Stars Beneath Your Bed and picked vocabulary from within the book.  I then used fun foam and cut star shapes and on one star I wrote the vocabulary word and another star contained a picture.  The students would then flip over all the stars and play a memory game to match the picture with the word.  My last activity was a comprehension activity with Splish, Splash, Animal Baths.  Students would fill out a KWL chart using this book.   Before the students read the book they would write what the already Know about animal baths.  Then they would write what they Want to know about animal baths.  After reading the book, students would record what they learned about animal baths.

I really enjoyed reading your books to prepare for my presentation and it was wonderful researching your background and getting to know more about you.  You definitely seem very passionate about what you write about and that is so exciting.  I really enjoyed planning classroom activities using your books.  Also, to motivate my class and engage them in the lesson I told them we were going to take a trip to Panama and I followed that with reading Army Ant Parade.  This really grabbed everyone's attention and gave them a sense of your writing style before I even started my presentation.

September Animal

What is this creature scratching an itch? This animal can hold 3 gallons of water in its mouth.  I photographed it in Monterey, CA, on the docks before I took a whale watch trip. Click photo for answer.

CYPD! Conference

August 30th I'll be speaking at the yearly conference of the Children's and Young People's Division of the Indiana Library Federation. I  am looking forward to meeting folks as well as catching up with many wonderful children's librarians I've crossed paths with during my Indiana travels. Psst… I've got some great book news to share, too.  Hint: many of you have had a "taste" of this work in progress.

For Parents and Teachers

Recently I became familiar with author Mem Fox's website and found some wonderful articles there—articles about reading aloud and about teaching kids to read. Here's one of them:

http://www.memfox.com/like-mud-not-fireworks.html

August Insect

This Tiger Swallowtail is feeding from a cupplant in our back yard. In addition to the yellow form, it also has a dark form, called a dark morph. In our area, the caterpillars feed on cherry trees. (They are different from the tent caterpillars, though.)

July Mammal

Who's this eating bird seed under the feeder? They visit every night. Give me an "R" for r——.  They smell just slightly musky, but not as much as a skunk. So you can often tell when a raccoon has been visiting. They are often active at night, but I photographed this one in early morning. Perhaps it could not sleep and got up for a snack?

June Animal Eye

Who's this? Give me an "E" and think Africa. One of my favorite sites is Safari TV, which features three daily game drives led by knowledgeable naturalist guides in Sabi Sands. You can email and ask them questions and they often answer, live.

If You're Hoppy

Just back from speaking at the wonderful Picture Perfect Science workshop in Ohio.

Recently got a peek at my new book, Feb 2011 release: IF YOU'RE HOPPY, illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic, published by Greenwillow. It's humorous fiction, a read aloud for the very youngest and fun for preschool/K story hour.  Jackie and Greenwillow did an amazing job producing this book; it just feels yummy in some essential way. I'm thrilled.

Children's Book Author/Illustrator Links

More author sites for you to investigate:

Amy Timberlake http://www.amytimberlake.com
April Halprin Wayland http://www.TeachingAuthors.com
Alison James http://www.JAlisonJames.com
April Pulley Sayre http://www.aprilsayre.com
Ashley Formento http://www.alisonashleyformento.com
Alvina Ling http://bloomabilities.blogspot.com
Anne Broyles http://www.annebroyles.com
Anne Ylvisaker http://www.anneylvisaker.com
Barbara Garrison www.barbaragarrison.com
Betsy James http://www.betsyjames.com
Bill Crider

Vulture View Activity

See author/curriculum consultant/teacher  Kate Narita's blog April 5, 2010 for Vulture View activities.

Also, on April 18, 2010, I answered questions about the book, as well.