The Summer Kids Talk Turkey (Vultures)

We're back! I'm teaching a small group of mixed-age kids for six weeks this summer, and will be blogging off and on with them. Today we worked on letter Vv, painted volcanoes, and read Vulture View written by April Pulley Sayre and illustrated by Steve Jenkins. You can read what April Pulley Sayre has to say about Vulture View at her website. Sayre's nonfiction picture books for young children are among my favorites. Check her stuff out the next time you're at the library. I guarantee your kids are going to love her books. 

Annalee: I like the picture where he found some food. I liked that bear climbing a tree. I like this picture. He's sitting in a tree fluffing up his wings. I saw a baby hedgehog today when I was going to my school. It was running across the road.

Arthur:  I like this page because they are eating this animal because it's dead. It was smelly.

Teagan: I will tell you which part I love. I like this part. [Illustration of the rotting bones of an animal whose species the children debated. Their guesses ranged from buffalo to elephant. It looks to be in the cattle family to me.] Here's all the parts of this animal. I don't know what it is.

Camryn: All I know is that these animals might be extinct. The vultures fly. When it's cold, they go down, and when it's sunny they go up. They're looking for something good to eat.  They like to eat something dead. Not that snake! Not that fox, because it's alive! They want to eat this deer because they like stuff that is dead and real stinky.

John: I learned that vultures are good for the earth and they eat all the dead stuff. And when the bad stuff drops into the ground and touches all the plants and stuff, they die. So the vultures are the animal garbage people. I liked when the vulture was gliding and soaring through the air at the second page.

Olivia: I was going to talk about these guys that are skeletons. This is a ram, and that's a pig. And this deer I'm talking about because he's dead. They're going to eat it, because they like eating animals that are dead. And I like vultures that fly in the sky. I like snakes. I like foxes. I like vultures that stand on branches. I like bears. I like vultures that go in a family tree.

J.J.:  I learned about that vultures eat yucky food. I think there's a big ant on this page.