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!

Lovely leaf graphics by Cindy Calenti of Granny Goes to School!

Here's a way to extend your leaf sorting lessons and  create a new class book! Stop by my TpT store to see Love Those Leaves.

Happy Teaching!

Find more than 40 autumn resources at my TpT store!

Apple Blog Hop ~ Rehearsing Learning with Puppets

Hi, Teaching Friends!

It's apple season again, and time for another great blog hop!




Do you love reading aloud to your class? I think it's one of the coziest, calmest, and happiest times in the day. It's also a time that's chock full of teaching opportunities, making it all the more important to choose read aloud books carefully and pre-read them thoroughly. (I could share a cautionary tale about reading Tomie DePaola's  Bill and Pete to a class without pre-reading ... but that's another story for another day...)

Here's a book that I've found to be a great teaching tool for this time of year, Amy and Richard Hutchings' Picking Apples and Pumpkins.

 

 

There are a number of other good books with similar titles out there, but what makes this one my favorite is the fact that it's illustrated with photos. I think that really brings the book to life and encourages children to make comprehension-building connections with their own lives. I'm also partial to this book because it was photographed at Battleview Orchards, which is only about 45 minutes away from where I live here in New Jersey. We've been apple and pumpkin picking there with our own children!

After you read, you might want to try comparing apples and pumpkins, using one of these great ideas from Pinterest. These fruits are a natural for using Venn diagrams!


Here's a great one from Simply Second Grade ...

 

 

 

...and another variation is this double bubble thinking map from My First Grade Backpack. This one will also leave you with a useful anchor chart for your fall writing center.

One way that I've enjoyed extending the value of read alouds is to make simple puppets and use them to rehearse the language and concepts of the book. Puppets are fun, engaging, and often just what's needed to build confidence and speaking skills in your more introverted students.

I like to keep the puppet-making simple, like these quick-and-easy construction paper and popsicle stick ones. But don't stop there ... add in a literacy component!

Let's have a show! Using dialogue is a great way to cement learning from a read aloud and to master new content area vocabulary. In kindergarten and first grade, it could be as simple as partnering students and having them act out little conversations, using  the new vocabulary from Picking Apples and Pumpkins.

After a minute or two of conversation, switch partners for a new talk and new practice. Quick-paced, fun, and effective practice of new vocab and concepts!



With more advanced writers, try having partners write the dialogue. The anchor charts above would be good graphic organizers for this. Keep a copy of the book you read as well as other relevant books handy for inspiration and reference, and remember to leave time for performances, too!


Here's another way for your students to practice their learning about apples and pumpkins.  With this brand new set of 20 riddle cards and a four-in-a-row game, your students will practice inference and build vocabulary like pulp, core, vine, harvest, and 16 more. Check it out here at Teachers Pay Teachers or here at Teachers Notebook.

Would you like to win a copy of this riddle set? I'm giving away three during this blog hop!

a Rafflecopter giveaway








Time to get hopping to Kooky Kinders for more great apple fun! Just click on the cute owls and enjoy the rest of the blog hop!

                                                                           


Happy Teaching!