Leaves in Fall by Mari Schuh

Autumn... also known as fall in some parts of the world... is the transitional season between the heat of summer and the cold of winter.  In the northern hemisphere, autumn lasts from mid-September to mid-December and from the beginning of March until the end of May in the southern hemisphere.  Autumn is marked by changes in the environment such as:

🍎 Leaves changing colors and falling from the trees

🍎 Temperatures dropping 

🍎 Days getting shorter while nights get longer
🍎 Animals making preparations for winter
🍎 Farmers harvesting their crops

Mari Schuh recently wrote a non-fiction book called Leaves in Fall for early readers in which she describes what happens to leaves during autumn.  Full-color photos and kid-friendly vocabulary are used throughout her book. Read on to learn more about Leaves in Fall and how to integrate it into your lessons at school.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

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Author's Summary

In Leaves in Fall, young readers will discover the changes leaves go through during fall. Vibrant, full-color photos and carefully leveled text will engage early readers as they learn why leaves drop from trees in fall.  A labeled diagram helps readers identify different types of leaves, while a picture glossary reinforces new vocabulary. Leaves in Fall also features reading tips for teachers and parents, a table of contents, and an index.  Leaves in Fall is part of Jump!’s What Happens in Fall? series.

🍎 Title: Leaves in Fall

🍎 Author: Mari Schuh

🍎 Date: February 22, 2019

🍎 Publisher: Jump! Library

🍎 Pages: 24

Read Leaves of Fall

Leaves of Fall is a non-fiction book written for early readers and includes all of the features a non-fiction book for older children has... a table of contents, glossary, captions, index, etc.  Before reading it to your students, take the time to point out these features and what they are used for.  Explain the difference between reading for information and reading for enjoyment.  Set the stage for reading Leaves in Fall and have at it.  This is a gorgeous book... take your time, admire the photos, and talk about the facts on each page, and enjoy the process.

What Did We Learn?

Whenever I read a non-fiction book with my students, I have a hard time saying 'The End' and moving onto the next task.  I need to have some sort of closure to make sure the children learned what they were supposed to.  The simplest way for me to do this is to simply ask my students, 'What did you learn from this book?' and write their responses on an anchor chart.  

Go on a Nature Walk

After reading and discussing Leaves in Fall with your students, take a nature walk around your school.  Look at the leaves in the trees.  What color are they?  Walk in the dried leaves on the ground.  What does it sound like while your feet rustle through them?  What happens when you squeeze a dried leaf in your hands?  Collect some leaves to take back to the classroom.  Do not pluck them directly from the trees.  

Make a Collage

Making a collage with the leaves you collected is not difficult at all and I don't really need to go in-depth with the directions.  All your students need to do is take the leaves they collected during the nature walk, add some glue to the back of them, and arrange them on the paper in a way that makes them happy.

For young children, this will more than likely be process art, meaning they will enjoy the process of creating the collage without planning what the end product will look like. If that happens, it's OK. Let them enjoy the process of creating their collages. 

To learn more about  Leaves in Fall, please visit Mari Schuh's website.

(Next Article: Ida's Witness by Karl Beckstrand)