Primary Inspiration: Going On a Leaf Hunt with a Favorite Fall Book!

Hello, Teaching Friends!

Do you know We're Going on a Leaf Hunt?

It's one of my favorite fall books for the PreK-first grade crowd! Such a great autumn read by Steve Metzger, illustrated by Miki Sakamoto.

Based on the old song, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", this treasure of a read aloud follows three little ones as they go on a leaf hunt over a mountain, through a forest, around a waterfall, and across a lake, along the way discovering colorful hickory, birch, and red oak leaves.

As they go, the repeated refrain is ...

"We're going on a leaf hunt.
We're going right away.
Let's find colorful leaves.
It's a wonderful day!"

Of course, your little listeners will love to join in on the refrain. If you enlarge the words of the refrain onto chart paper ahead of time, you'll have a great opportunity to talk about letters, words and sentences, and to reinforce concepts of print like directionality, one-to-one match, and as with any refrain, fluent phrasing and expression.

Of course, there's a twist at the end of the story just like there is in the song, and this time it's not a bear that the children find!

The ending just adds more great opportunities for movement when you reread or retell this story. Your students will love climbing the mountain, picking up the leaves, and splish-splashing across the slippery stones at the waterfall. But they'll love it even more when they get to go backwards through the story at top speed to get home again.

If you have the time and you live where there are colorful leaves, maybe you'll want to take your class on a real leaf hunt after you read this book together. {And if there are no colorful leaves where you live, construction paper cut-outs scattered on the floor can be a lot of fun, too!} Here's a way your students can review the words of the refrain and display what they found on their leaf walk. It can also be the basis of great mini-lesson on attributes and sorting. There are two formats, one in blackline and the other with some "colorful" support! Whether the children glue their leaves on the paper or draw and color them, it's a fun little lesson! Just click on the picture to download it free!